Kansas City ? The digital clocks high up in Kemper Arena read 10:09 p.m. when the scoreboard clock hit :00 and Kansas became the NCAA basketball champion.
We will have that moment to remember … and we will also have other moments.
For instance, I’ll always remember:
KU chancellor Gene Budig standing on the floor during the post-game awards ceremonies, looking like he had just come out of a dozer of a committee meeting.
“It’s a proud moment for the University of Kansas,” Budig said. “We’re proud of these young people …”
Wait a minute, I interrupted … why don’t you look happy?
“I’m not happy,” he replied stone-faced, “I’m ecstatic.”
Then the chancellor smiled: “I’ve consumed three packages of Rolaids since three o’clock. I take this very seriously.”
How strange it was to see Monte Johnson — the former Kansas athletic director, the man who hired Larry Brown and a man who was on the KU team the last time it last played for the NCAA title in 1957 — sitting in, of all places, the Oklahoma section.
As a member of the Kansas City Organizing Committee, Johnson was assigned as host for the Southeast Regional champion long ago, and that, as fate would have it, happened to be Oklahoma. Nothing he could do about it.
“They knew where my heart was,” Johnson said about the OU people, “and they couldn’t have been more courteous.”
If the Oklahoma people didn’t know how Johnson felt, his blue jacket and red tie might have been a clue.
After the game, Johnson remained in the OU section, cheering and whistling when the KU players went to accept their championship rings.
Current Kansas athletic director Bob Frederick was all over the floor congratulating everybody while clutching the game ball under one arm.
Where’s that ball going, Bob … to the trophy case?
“I don’t know,” Frederick grinned. “Wherever Larry wants it.”
And how was Frederick, a former college assistant coach, feeling down the stretch when Oklahoma made its comeback bid?
“Scared to death,” he confessed. “But I told my wife that Danny’s not going to let ’em lose, and that’s exactly what happened. He hit those free throws and got those rebounds …”
Former Kansas basketball player Jeff Dishman came all the way down from the upper deck and somehow sneaked on the floor during all the post-game hoopla. Even though Dishman, who is battling pancreatic cancer, did not play under Brown, the KU coach helped him secure a ticket.
“Once a Jayhawk always a Jayhawk,” Dishman gushed. “It’s wonderful. Coach Brown did a super job. He got ’em to believe.”
Darnelle Manning, you-know-who’s mother, was swarmed by media after the game. In her own way, she said, she helped her son make those four crucial bonus free throws in the last 14 seconds.
“After he missed the first one,” she said, “I have this thing where I talk to him. I know he can’t hear me, but he seemed to parrot me.”
Did she cross her fingers when Danny went to the line?
“I used to do that,” she said, “but I stopped doing it two years ago.”
Student manager Bill Pope said it. “When we played Xavier in our first game, I thought we’d lose, so I kept saying we’d lose, but I knew in my heart we’d win. I hope I never wake up.”
Football-basketball player Cling Normore scored seven points — that was seven more than he had in the five previous NCAA Tournament games — then announced that, yes, he will now report for spring football practice. “And I’m gonna wear my ring,” he grinned. “I know that.”
Archie Marshall suited up for only the second time since going down with a knee injury on Dec. 30 — the first was in the home finale — and actually went through pre-game drills even though he couldn’t possibly play.
“I was encouraged by my teammates (to suit up),” he said. “I had fun. I haven’t warmed up with the excitement in the air in a long time. I loved every minute of it.”
Student assistant Mark Turgeon, who could have been part of this team if he had sat out a season like Chris Piper did, said it. “If I’d have red-shirted, we’d have lost in Lincoln. This is great the way it is. I feel like I was part of it.”
Turgeon played on the 1986 team that went to the NCAA Final Four in Dallas and lost to Duke in the semifinals.
“It’s weird, isn’t it?” Turgeon said. “We had such a great team that year, and we didn’t think we could win it all. Before the first game of the tournament this year, we talked about winning it all. That’s all we cared about.”
I heard it first from the lips of trainer Mark Cairns. “Do we get to see the president?”