Kansans love their Jay-hawks. The excitement and energy inside Allen Fieldhouse are overwhelming.
The tradition surrounding a KU home game has as much to do with the “event” as it does the game itself. I spent the past season capturing the Allen Fieldhouse experience from the perspective of the fans and saw firsthand what makes Kansas basketball so special.
I’ve collected a record of each home game in photos, soundbites and video clips and placed them online (www.kusports.com/multimedia/ fancoverage.html).
I’ve met people from all over Kansas and the Midwest who came to Lawrence just to see a game. Many were current or former students; some were local celebrities. Some have been coming to the fieldhouse for decades; others were here for the first time.
One of the highlights for me this past year was discovering the mystery behind the man nicknamed “Enrico Palazo.” Another was getting to meet Olympian Tara Nott, who stopped by for the Washburn game as part of her publicity tour. Then there was the guy in the penguin suit. By far, though, the most fascinating discovery I made was in stumbling on the intricate sub-culture of the student campers.
The build-up for a game actually begins at 6 the morning after the previous game. That’s when the many student seating groups gather for a lottery to determine the pecking order for seats. A representative from each group then camps out in Allen Fieldhouse usually in two-hour shifts from then until the next game.
The camping hours run from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day, with suspensions for holidays, bad weather, other events in the fieldhouse and, usually, away games. For many students, this is the best, if not only, time to get that homework done or catch up on some much needed sleep.
The students generally police themselves, and all abide by the same unwritten rules for the most part. On the day of the lottery, for every five members of one group present, that group gets to draw one number out of a hat. When all the groups have drawn, the groups are listed in order on a sheet posted in the corridor.
A roll call is taken every few hours or so, and any group not represented is dropped from the list.
A roll call is taken at the end of the day, and again the following morning, until game time.
When game time rolls around, all members present for each group get admitted in the order on the sheet. University regulations limit the size of each group to 30 members, but if not all are there by the time they enter the court, a sheet of newspaper is legal tender to save a seat for a missing friend but one person can only save one seat, so at least half of the group needs to be there when they are let in, usually two hours before tip-off.
There is a great deal of “friendly competition” be-tween the many student groups who camp out for the best seats. Some are highly visible, like the Phog Phanatics and the shirtless Roy’s Boys, but they all share the same Jayhawk pride.
I profiled a different group for most of the home games this past season and learned a little about them and their history.
Why do they through all the trouble to camp out for days just to earn priority seating? Without exception, the answer to that question has been, “Because it’s Kansas basketball.”
After following the fans, as well as the team, all season, I understand what they mean.
