Country music star Jake Owen hits up KU football practice

By Matt Tait     Sep 4, 2015
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A simple drive to Colorado by a country music star turned into a memorable moment for the Kansas University football program and the musician.

That was the way things unfolded Thursday afternoon, when country music’s Jake Owen — of “Barefoot Blue Jean Night” fame — was on his way to Colorado for a Saturday gig at the Colorado State Fair.

Feeling the need to get off the road and stretch his legs for a while, Owen took to Twitter to announce that he’d love to find a place to workout during a pit stop.

Now, there’s no telling how many people responded to the 34-year-old Owen, who has a whopping 1.7 million Twitter followers, but the official Kansas Football account was one of the respondents and that led to a memorable day for both Owen and the Jayhawks.

A few minutes after the initial Tweet was sent out, the KU account responded with the offer.

Owen quickly accepted and the meeting was on. In addition to hitting up KU’s workout facility at the Anderson Family Football Complex — no word yet how long Owen worked out or whether strength coach Je’Ney Jackson or any of his staff got a crack at him — the country music star checked out a bit of practice and posed for a photo with first-year KU coach David Beaty, a big country music fan himself, and others with several players before getting back on the road.

After the whole thing was over, the KU football Facebook page posted the photo of Owen and Beaty with a quote from the country singer: “I’m proud to say that I am now a huge Jayhawk fan.”

https://www.facebook.com/KansasFootball/photos/a.139324235546.113174.71592180546/10153279998355547/

Hey, every little bit helps. Too bad he won’t be able to attend Saturday’s game.

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Written By Matt Tait

A native of Colorado, Matt moved to Lawrence in 1988 and has been in town ever since. He graduated from Lawrence High in 1996 and the University of Kansas in 2000 with a degree in Journalism. After covering KU sports for the University Daily Kansan and Rivals.com, Matt joined the World Company (and later Ogden Publications) in 2001 and has held several positions with the paper and KUsports.com in the past 20+ years. He became the Journal-World Sports Editor in 2018. Throughout his career, Matt has won several local and national awards from both the Associated Press Sports Editors and the Kansas Press Association. In 2021, he was named the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. Matt lives in Lawrence with his wife, Allison, and two daughters, Kate and Molly. When he's not covering KU sports, he likes to spend his time playing basketball and golf, listening to and writing music and traveling the world with friends and family.