With the NCAA tournament turning so unpredictably, the Jayhawks will need all the luck they can get to make it to the Final Four. KU fans are pulling out all the traditions and superstitions to make sure Kansas keeps dancing.
A message thread on the KUSports.com forum lists several currently being employed. From wearing KU shirts made lucky from a previous win (and avoiding the cursed ones from a previous loss), to burning a pork chop, to spitting in the river, Kansas should have all the luck they need.
KU Sophomores Marci Bocox, Darcie Rich and Sarah Tongier spent the afternoon decking out Marci’s Dodge Intrepid in Crimson and Blue. They explained that this was the faithful car that had taken them on many KU road trips in the past. Since they could not get to Dayton, they thought the next best thing was to get out the white shoe polish and show their Jayhawk pride.
The three, members of the student camping group, “The Jaybabes,” vowed that they would keep the show of support on the car until Kansas won it all (or until they get knocked out, which ever came first).
Marci confided that she really did not have a problem with being coerced by the other two into writing on her car, and that the white shoe polish usually washes off pretty easily with Windex and a little elbow grease.
When asked if they participate in any other acts of KU superstition, Darcie pulled out a Jayhawk pendant necklace that was given to her in 1988-the year Kansas last won a National Championship-before she even became a Jayhawk fan. She believes that wearing it now can only help KU’s cause.
The others responded that they like to yell at the television, especially when an opponent attempts a free throw. They yell “Penguin!” in memory of The Guy in the Penguin Suit (Matt Dallman, who graduated this past December).
The three need to vacate their homes in Ellsworth Hall Saturday morning for Spring Break, so they plan on gathering in Marci’s room Friday night to cheer on Kansas during their first round Tourney encounter.
“It will be just like camping in Allen Fieldhouse,” they explained. “We’ll order a pizza, sit back and watch the game.”
OKLAHOMA CITY ? Max Falkenstien was absolutely all over the place.
Try as they could to keep ol’ Max in check, the Souders family of Stilwell couldn’t prevent him from lunging at passersby Saturday, getting his paws dirty and generally carrying on like a Kansas University Jayhawks fan should while basking in the glow of Friday night’s 58-point blowout of Prairie View A&M.
We’re not talking about the longtime Jayhawk radio announcer, of course. We’re talking about a miniature, scrunched-up, bulldog-looking puppy named after him.
“It was either going to be Roy (Williams) or Max,” Rick Souders said of the naming process. “I guess it was just out of a little more respect for Roy.”
Covered in royal blue sweatshirts and Jayhawk emblems, Rick and Sheryl Souders, with their children, Bryson, 14, Allison, 11, and Brock, 9, were busy dealing with the eager pup when a Wichita television crew stopped them. A female reporter in a KU baseball hat asked the three youngsters to sing a few bars of “Rock Chalk Jayhawk.”
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Behind them, the drums and decorated cars and green banners and kilts of Oklahoma City’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade filled Sheridan Avenue curb to curb.
“I think it’s great,” Rick Souders said of Oklahoma City’s downtown. “The kids are on spring break.”
In particular the Bricktown area, a stretch of old warehouses near The Myriad that has recently been transformed into restaurants and bars, has provided an enjoyable venue for visitors.
“I love this downtown area,” Sheryl Souders said. “I wish Kansas City had something like this.” Stilwell is near Kansas City.
The family spent the first two rounds of the 1993 NCAA Tournament in St. Louis, watching KU beat California and Indiana en route to their last Final Four appearance.
“I hope they can go all the way, just to take the media pressure off them a little bit,” Rick Souders said. “Just let ’em enjoy basketball.”
Ready for more
Along Sheridan Avenue, green balloons filled with helium defied gravity and drums kept time as ranks of uniformed military types marched east. Below them, a glaze of moisture, left over from a brief rain the night before, darkened the road.
Clowns in green and orange troll wigs juggled blue and white bowling pins. The Little Caesar’s “pizza, pizza” guy waved from a modern-day chariot. Star Trek Klingon warriors waved to children sitting on the cold, yellow curb.
A kilt-clad band of Scottish Highlanders played “America the Beautiful” on the bagpipes. Following in their wake was the Oklahoma City Rottweiler’s club, with the menacing-looking black and brown dogs wearing festive green bows and tied to very short leashes.
The EZ Riders Chevrolet and GMC “pickup or shutup” club honked their horns as the gleaming, metal caravan rolled by.
Brian and Judy Burkhead, Dallas, said they were visiting Oklahoma City with Brian’s parents, John and Marilyn Burkhead of Topeka. The group was all smiles after Friday’s game, although they had to get creative as they searched for tickets last week.
“We bought our tickets through Rhode Island,” said John Burkhead, a member of the KU Williams Fund and one of several hundred people who had initially vied for one of 118 tickets through KU. Each university was allotted just 350 tickets.
Marilyn Burkhead said she was impressed with the intensity of the Prairie View fans, especially the raucous band members.
“They could dance,” she said.
Brian and Judy Burkhead lived in Oklahoma City before moving to Dallas 12 years ago. He said they hadn’t been back since, and had no plans to visit the hollowed-out sight of the former Alfred P. Murrah federal building.
“We’re ready for some more basketball,” he said.
Some visitors did make time for the more somber sights in Oklahoma City. Bryson Souders and his younger brother, Brock, were noticeably affected by their morning viewing of the site of the April 1995 bombing, just a few blocks away at Fifth and Robinson.
They viewed the teddy bears, wreaths, flowers and photos of victims hooked to “the fence,” as Oklahoma City residents refer to it.
“It was different, seeing those kids up there who were killed with their families,” Bryson said.
“I can’t believe how one bomb did all that damage,” Brock said, referring to the YMCA and other buildings with still-boarded windows and unrepaired wreckage.
Play the game
Also walking through the downtown area were Sean and Todd Williams, Lawrence. Todd Williams, a.k.a “Leeper,” is perhaps most visible in Lawrence as the guy who grabs the kick-off tee from the field during KU football games.
“I’ve been doing that for a long, long time,” Williams said.
Outside Bricktown’s Abuelo’s restaurant, the Williams brothers ran into former Jayhawk basketball greats Al Lopes and Bud Stallworth.
Stallworth, a Jayhawk in the late 1960s and early 1970s, said he was enjoying the visit as a spectator. During an earlier visit, he took his family to see the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center in Oklahoma City. Stallworth marveled that a team with a losing record (Prairie View) could get into the tournament.
“You had to win your conference or you were out — there was no gray area,” said Stallworth, who played before the NCAA Tournament field was expanded from 32 teams to 64. “It’s great for the whole March Madness to have those kinds of things going on.”
Nevertheless, Stallworth questioned the Prairie View players’ choice to talk a big game in the days before stepping onto the court.
“They don’t understand that you have to play the game,” he said.
