How to Be a Rutgers Fan In Kansas

The University of Kansas is far better known for its basketball team than its football team, which has now followed up its season-opening 26-23 home overtime loss to Nicholls State of Louisiana -- an FCS (formerly known as Division I-AA) team -- with a 31-7 win away to Central Michigan.

This coming Saturday, they will host Rutgers, which got pummeled 52-3 by Ohio State yesterday.

On November 10, they will play away to Kansas State University, in the annual "Sunflower Showdown." KSU has also split its 1st 2 games, although in a much more understandable fashion, hosting and beating an FCS team, the University of South Dakota, 27-24; and then hosting a ranked team, Mississippi State, and losing 31-10.

Before You Go. Kansas is mostly flat, and the term "plains" is appropriate: It's plain. This means that, in the Winter, it can get very windy and terribly cold. But a comparative lack of shade means that, in the Summer, it can get beastly hot. And, as anyone who's ever seen a film version of The Wizard of Oz knows, Kansas (along with neighboring Oklahoma) is "Tornado Alley."

Next Saturday is predicted to be in the mid-80s at gametime (11:00 AM Central), and should drop to the high 60s at night. "Isolated thunderstorms" are predicted for Sunday, but you may be on your way home and out of Kansas by then.

With the exception of the westernmost one-quarter or so, which is in the Mountain Time Zone, Kansas is in the Central Time Zone, 1 hour behind New York. Adjust your timepieces accordingly.

Tickets. KU's stadium seats 50,071, and a horrible 1-11 season last year meant that only once did they top 33,000 in attendance, and that was for the KSU game, and even that only drew 36,223. (Along with Indiana, Kansas is the only Midwestern State that's a basketball State, not a football State.) Getting tickets shouldn't be hard. Seats will be $55 in lower midfield, $45 in sideline ends, and $20 in the north end zone. (No seats in the south end zone.)

KSU's stadium also seats 50,000, but they were 8-5 last season, and all 7 home games were sellouts. Their tickets will be tougher to get. They're $50 on the lower sidelines, and $30 in the end zone and in the upper deck.

Getting There. It's 1,208 miles from High Point Solutions Stadium (Rutgers Stadium) in Piscataway, New Jersey to David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium in Lawrence. Knowing this, your first instinct will be to fly out there.

Neither Lawrence nor Manhattan has a large enough population base, by itself, to warrant and International Airport. So, if you're going to fly in, you'll end up landing in Kansas City, and then you should probably rent a car, 52 miles to the southwest, down Interstates 435 South and 70 West. To KSU's Bill Snyder Family Stadium in Manhattan, it's 133 miles west. You could get a round-trip, non-stop flight for under $800.

And you may have to fly in and rent a car, or just drive all the way, to see a Kansas State home football game, because neither Amtrak nor Greyhound goes anywhere near Manhattan, Kansas.

Amtrak does go to Lawrence. It sends the Lake Shore Limited out of Penn Station at 3:40 PM Eastern Time, to Union Station in Chicago at 9:45 AM Central Time. Then you have to switch to the Southwest Chief, leaving Chicago at 2:50 PM, and arrives at Lawrence at 11:47 PM, meaning you would need to leave New York on Thursday afternoon to get there Friday night in order to attend the game. Round trip fare is $395. Lawrence's Amtrak station is at 413 E. 7th Street.

Lawrence's Greyhound station is at 6 E. 6th Street, across from the town's library. The round-trip fare is $348, but it can drop to as low as $271 with advanced purchase.

If you decide to drive, it's far enough that it will help to get someone to go with you and split the duties, and to trade off driving and sleeping. You'll need to get on the New Jersey Turnpike, and take Interstate 78 West across New Jersey, and at Harrisburg get on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, which at this point will be both I-70 and I-76. When the two Interstates split outside Pittsburgh, stay on I-70 west.

You'll cross the northern tip of West Virginia, and go all the way across Ohio (through Columbus), Indiana (through Indianapolis), Illinois and Missouri. I-70 becomes the Kansas Turnpike, and you'll take Exit 202 onto McDonald Drive. This street will flow into Iowa Street, and you'll turn left onto W. 9th Street toward the KU campus.

If you do it right, you should spend about an hour and 15 minutes in New Jersey, 5 hours in Pennsylvania, 15 minutes in West Virginia, 3 hours and 45 minutes in Ohio, 2 hours and 30 minutes in Indiana, 2 hours and 30 minutes in Illinois, 4 hours and 15 minutes in Missouri, and 45 minutes in Kansas before you reach the campus for your hotel. That's a little over 20 hours. Counting rest stops, preferably 7 of them, and accounting for traffic in both New York and Kansas City, it should be about 29 hours.
Kansas is the Sunflower State, and is home to just under 3 million people. It is Middle America, and that's literally true: The midpoint of the 48 Contiguous States (not including Alaska and Hawaii) is within its borders.
It's also famously conservative: It's only voted for a Democratic nominee for President once since 1936, in 1964, and even then, it was one of Barry Goldwater's best States in his 44-State loss to Lyndon Johnson. It's elected archconservative Senators, one of whom, Sam Brownback, became one of the worst Governors in the country, his tax cut bankrupting the State. In 2004, historian and political scientist Thomas Frank published What's the Matter With Kansas?

The answer, as it turns out, is the Wichita-based Koch Brothers, Charles G., age 82, and David H., 78, each of whom is currently believed to have fortunes in excess of $50 billion. They call themselves "libertarian" but are actually conservative fanatics, and they donate so much to Republican politicians as to practically own their votes, manipulating the evangelical and bigoted bents of said candidates and their voters.

Presuming Brett Kavanaugh joins Neil Gorsuch as successful appointees to the Supreme Court, on top of the massive tax cut they got, they probably won't mind one bit if, sometime thereafter, Donald Trump is impeached and removed, and Midwestern conservative nut Mike Pence becomes President. They only needed Trump and his rhetoric for the 2016 election and the "right" to govern.
Lawrence, founded in 1854, is home to about 95,000 people, not counting student residents, and is part of the Kansas City metropolitan area. It was named for the town of Lawrence, Massachusetts, itself named for Amos Adams Lawrence, an abolitionist, at a time when Kansas was ground zero for the debate over slavery.

In Lawrence, the Kansas River divides addresses into North and South, and Massachusetts Street divides them into East and West. The local newspaper is the Lawrence Daily World. The city is 81 percent white, 6 percent Hispanic, 5 percent black, 5 percent Asian, and 3 percent Native American. Lawrence Transit, a.k.a. The T, runs buses. The University runs KU on Wheels. Both bus systems are free to KU students, faculty and staff. For everyone else, The T is $1.00 per ride.

Despite being officially named the University of Kansas, the school's name is usually abbreviated to "KU." It was founded in 1865. Famous alumni include:

Sports other than football and basketball, which I'll discuss in "Team History Displays": Glenn Cunningham '31, former world record holder in the 1,500 meter and mile runs; Bill Nieder '55, Gold Medalist in the shot put at the 1960 Olympics; Al Oerter '58, Gold Medalist in the discus throw at the 1956, '60, '64 and '68 Olympics; Billy Mills '60, Gold Medalist in the 10,000 meters at the 1964 Olympics; Philip Asnchutz '61, founder of Qwest, and one of the guiding forces in Major League Soccer; and Jim Ryan '68, former world record holder in the 800 and 1,500 meters and the mile. Baseball All-Star Bob Allison attended and played at KU, but did not graduate.

Politics, from Kansas unless otherwise stated: Governor Alf Landon, Class of 1908, and his daughter, Senator Nancy Kassebaum '54; Governors George Docking '25 and his son Robert Docking '48, Governor William H. Avery '34, Governor Robert F. Bennett '50; Juan Manuel Santos '73, who just finished 2 terms as President of Colombia, winner of the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize. Bob Dole attended KU, and played football and basketball there, but after World War II, transferred to the University of Arizona, and got his degree there.

Journalism: William Allen White 1890, Bill Kurtis '62, baseball sabermetrician Bill James '73, and sportscaster Kevin Harlan '82.

Arts: Playwright William Inge '35, novelist Evan Connell '47, director Herk Havey '48, actor Terry Kiser '62, novelist Sara Paretsky '67, actress Dee Wallace '70, actress Betsy Randle '77, sportscaster Kevin Harlan '82, comedian Rob Riggle '92, and actor Paul Rudd '92.

Science: Vitamin co-discoverer Elmer McCollum 1903, Pluto discoverer Clyde Tombaugh '36, plutonium co-discoverer Joseph W. Kennedy '37 (they may have known each other, inspiring Kennedy to name his element after Tombaugh's planet), and Paul Ehrlich '57.

Manhattan, home of KSU, has about 52,000 people. It was founded in 1855, and named for what the Kanza tribue called the Great Blue Earth River, "Manyinkatuhuudje." New York's Manhattan comes from the Lenape tribe's name, "Manna-hata," or "Island of Many Hills." So, hearing the Kanza name, the white settlers in the "Popular Sovereignty" or "Bleeding Kansas" period called it "Manhattan," because that's what it sounded like to them. And, as New York is the Big Apple, the Kansas version is called the Little Apple.

The town is about 82 percent white, 6 percent Hispanic, 6 percent black, 5 percent Asian, and 1 percent Native American. The main newspaper is the Manhattan Mercury. Poyntz Avenue separates addresses into North and South, and the numbers increase westward from the Kansas River. ATA Bus has a $1.00 fare.

Noted KSU graduates include:

Sports, other than Football and Basketball: Baseball pitcher Elden Auker '32, catcher Earl Woods '53 (Tiger's father, a Manhattan, Kansas native, broke the color barrier in Big Eight baseball, before embarking on a career as an Army officer), sprinter Thane Baker '56 (won a full medal set, Gold, Silver and Bronze at the 1956 Olympics), and triple jumper Kenny Harrison '88 (Gold Medal at the 1996 Olympics). Mitch Holtus '79 is a broadcaster for the Kansas City Chiefs.

Arts: Historian Kenneth S. Davis '34, record producer Jerry Wexler '46, actor Gordon Jump '57, and actor Eric Stonestreet '96.

Politics, from Kansas unless otherwise stated: Senator and Secretary of the Interior Fred Seaton '31, Congressman John Rhodes of Arizona '38, House Minority Leader 1973-83 and instrumental in convincing President Nixon to resign; current Senator Pat Roberts '58, Governor John Carlin '62, White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater '65; General Richard Myers '65, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and since 2016 the President of KSU; Governor Mike Hayden '66, and Senator and Governor Sam Brownback '79.

The Kansas State Capitol is in Topeka, 64 miles west of downtown KCMO, 26 miles west of the University of Kansas campus in Lawrence, 60 miles southeast of the Kansas State University campus in Manhattan (sure doesn't look like the one in New York), and 140 miles northeast of Kansas' largest city, Wichita.

ZIP Codes for the Kansas side of Kansas City start with the digits 66 and 67; for Lawrence, 66044; and for Manhattan, 66502. The beastly prefix of 666 is in the State capital of Topeka, although Area Code 666 is not used anywhere in America. The Area Codes for Kansas are 785 (for both Lawrence and Manhattan) and 913 (for most of the Kansas side of the Kansas City metropolitan area). The sales tax for the State is 6.15 percent.

Going In. KU's Memorial Stadium opened in 1921, and, like so many college football stadiums built in the 1920s (or shortly before, or shortly after), it is a memorial to the University's, and indeed the State's, losses in World War I.
Last year, the school renamed it David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium, after David G. Booth '68, a Lawrence native who donated $50 million to renovate the stadium. He got his graduate degree from the University of Chicago, and his $300 million to their business school, also renamed for him, is the largest donation ever given to a college's business school.
The address of the stadium is 1101 Maine Street (not "Main"), at Fambrough Way, just west of downtown. Bus 4 will get you to 9th & Maine, 2 blocks north. If you drive in, parking is $25.

The stadium is a horseshoe pointing south, and the field has been artificial turf since 1970.
Mention must also be made of the most famous building in the State of Kansas, and that's the Jayhawks' basketball arena, Allen Field House. Dr. Forrest C. Allen. A student of basketball's inventor, Dr. James Naismith, who coached there from 1898 to 1907, "Phog" Allen coached KU basketball from 1907 to 1909, and again from 1919 to 1956. That last season, 1955-56, was the 1st season of the building that bears his name. It's at 1651 Naismith Drive, about 2 miles southwest of downtown. Bus 10 or 11 will get you within a 5-minute walk.

He wasn't just a Ph.D.: He had a doctorate in osteopathy, and was his team's athletic trainer as well, said to have a "magic touch." His nicknames were Doc for his profession, and Phog for his "foghorn voice."

He won 26 Conference Championships, 2 Helms Athletic Foundation-awarded National Championships in 1922 and 1923, and the NCAA Tournament in 1952. He coached the U.S. team to the Gold Medal in the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. He coached Adolph Rupp, Ralph Miller, Dean Smith, Clyde Lovellette and Bob Dole, and, though retiring before he could coach him, recruited Wilt Chamberlain. He was a charter inductee into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1959.
ESPN The Magazine has called the 16,300-seat Allen Fieldhouse the loudest venue in college basketball. The court has been named for Naismith. So, while basketball wasn't invented there (KU is one of the truly great basketball schools, but it's not that great), it could be argued that, between Naismith and Allen, basketball coaching was invented there.
As for the Wildcats: The current KSU Stadium was named just that, "KSU Stadium," when it opened in 1968. After the 2005 season, coach Bill Snyder retired, and the school offered to rename it for him. He said, "If you are going to do it, name it after the people that I care about the most." So it became "Bill Snyder Family Football Stadium."
He returned to coach in 2009, and is 1 of only 5 Division I-A/Football Bowl Subdivision coaches ever to coach at a stadium named for him, joining Amos Alonzo Stagg at the University of Chicago, Bear Bryant at Alabama, Shug Jordan at Auburn and LaVell Edwards at Brigham Young. (Snyder is the only one still alive, let alone active.)

The address is 1800 College Avenue, at Kimball Avenue, about 2 miles northwest of downtown Manhattan. Take the Red bus in. If you drive in, parking is $20.

It is the opposite of KU's stadium: A horseshoe pointing north. Like KU's stadium, KSU's field was changed from real grass to artificial turf in 1970. Since a 1991 replacement was done, it's been named Wagner Field, in honor of donors Dave and Carol Wagner.
Prior to that, from 1922 to 1967, the Wildcats played at World War I Memorial Stadium, which had to be replaced because it seated only 17,500 people.
Food. According to a preseason 2016 article on KUAthletics.com:

Memorial Stadium concessions will showcase a variety of new items and stands. "The Lighter Side" located near sections 7 and 20 will feature grilled chicken sandwiches, veggie burgers, chicken salad, fruit cups and yogurt. Fans will also want to visit the "Bavarian Pretzel Cart" with parmesan butter and herb pretzels, pizza pretzels and pretzel bites. Some other new additions will be the giant smoked turkey leg and tornado potato fries. Click here to see a complete concession map and offerings.



Team History Displays. Kansas has won or tied for its conference's title 9 times: 1891, 1892, 1893, 1895, 1908, 1930, 1946, 1947 and 1968. They've won 6 bowl games: The 1961 Bluebonnet Bowl, the 1992 and 1995 Aloha Bowls, the 2005 Fort Worth Bowl, the 2008 Insight Bowl, and their only victory in a major, the 2008 Orange Bowl. They also reached the Orange Bowl in 1948 and 1970, but lost.

KU's Memorial Stadium has a Ring of Honor atop the northern bowl, honoring 14 players:

* From the 1940s: Running back and defensive back Ray Evans, end Otto Schnellbacher, and offensive tackle Mike McCormack.

* From the 1950s: Offensive linemen George Mrkonic and Ollie Spencer.

* From the 1960s: Quarterbacks John Hadl and Bobby Douglass, defensive end John Zook, and running backs Curtis McClinton, Gale Sayers and John Riggins.

* From the 1970s: Quarerback David Jaynes, and quarterback and safety Nolan Cromwell.

* From the 1980s: Linebacker Willie Pless.

The Jayhawks have retired 3 uniform numbers: Hadl's 21, Evans' 42, and Sayers' 48. They are in the College Football Hall of Fame, as is 1950s running back Jim Bausch. McCormack, Sayers and Riggins are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and cases can be made for Hadl and Cromwell, too.

Not on that list were 1940s Jayhawk teammates Bud Adams, founding owner of the Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans franchise, and longtime Senate Majority Leader and 1996 Republican Presidential nominee Bob Dole.

There are 27 Kansas basketball players with their uniform numbers on banners in Allen Fieldhouse, but these numbers are not retired. The school says it's the jerseys that are retired, not the numbers. Along with longtime broadcaster Max Falkenstein, given Number 60 in honor of 60 years of broadcasting (61, actually: 1945-2006), they are:

* From the 1920s: 12, guard Paul Endacott '23; 8, guard Charlie T. Black '24; 7, center Tusten Ackerman '25; 26, guard Gale Gordon '27; and 36, center Al Peterson '27.

* From the 1930s: 5, guard Fred Pralle '38. Not yet honored is center William "Skinny" Johnson '33.

* From the 1940s: 5, forward Howard Engleman '41; 10, forward Charles B. Black '47 (no relation to Charlie T.); 15, guard Ray Evans '47 (as previously mentioned, also honored in football).

* From the 1950s: 16, center Clyde Lovellette '52; 23, forward B.H. Born '54; and 13, center Wilt Chamberlain '59 (led them to the NCAA Final in '57, played in '58, but left to play for the Harlem Globetrotters in '59 before he could legally join the NBA). Not yet honored is guard Allen Kelley '54.

* From the 1960s: 32, forward Bill Bridges '41; 13, center Walt Wesley '66; 15, guard Jo Jo White '69.

* From the 1970s: 40, forward Dave Robisch '71; and 15, forward Bud Stallworth '72.

* From the 1980s: 14, guard Darnell Valentine '81; and 25, forward Danny Manning '88.

* From the 1990s: 11, guard Jacque Vaughn '97; 34, forward Paul Pierce '98; and 45, forward Raef LaFrentz '98.

* From the 21st Century: 0, forward Drew Gooden '02; 4, forward Nick Collison '03; 10, guard Kirk Hinrich '03; 23, forward Wayne Simien '05; and 15, guard Mario Chalmers '08.

Endacott, Johnson, Lovellette, Kelley, Chamberlain and White are in the Basketball Hall of Fame. So are coaches Naismith, Allen, Larry Brown and Roy Williams.
Allen has a statue outside his Fieldhouse. Behind that is the DeBruce Center, with a statue of Naismith. He also has statues in his hometown of Almonte, Ontario, Canada; and at the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, not far from Springfield College, formerly the YMCA where he invented the sport.
While the Kansas Jayhawks have been mediocre for most of the last half-century, the Kansas State Wildcats were one of the worst programs in college football until Bill Snyder arrived in 1989. They didn't go to their 1st bowl game until the 1982 Independence Bowl, and didn't win their 1st until the 1993 Copper Bowl.

However, they've now won the 1993 Copper Bowl, the 1995 Holiday Bowl, the 1997 Fiesta Bowl, the 1999 and 2002 Holiday Bowl, the 2001 Cotton Bowl, the 2013 Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl, the 2016 Texas Bowl, and the 2017 Cactus Bowl. They've also won or shared their league's title 6 times: 1909, 1910, 1912, 1934, 2003 and 2012. They have a statue of Snyder outside the stadium that bears his name.
They've retired 1 number, 11, for 2 quarterbacks, Lynn Dickey '70 and Steve Grogan '74. Their All-Americans have included linebacker Gary Spani '77, cornerback Chris Canty '96, kicker Martin Grmatica '98, cornerback Terence Newman '02, running back Darren Sproles '03, center Nick Leckey '03, and receiver Tyler Lockett '14.

Kansas and Kansas State first played each other in 1902, and have played each other every year since except 1910. In 1969, the Governor's Cup was first awarded. KU went 17-1-3 from 1902 to 1923, 10-1 from 1941 to 1952, and 19-1-2 from 1956 to 1977. But KSU has won the last 9, and 21 of the last 25.

There is a dispute as to the all-time record, because KU refuses to accept that they had to forfeit their win in the 1980 game, because they insist that they had paperwork showing that the ineligible player they'd used was, in fact, eligible. KU say they lead 65-44-5, KSU says it's 64-45-5.

Wildcat fans say their biggest rival is the Jayhawks. But Jayhawk fans are much more likely to say their biggest rival is the University of Missouri. This was the 1st college football rivalry west of the Mississippi River, and there is real history behind it, not just sports history. Real history. Really bloody history. They didn't call the Jayhawk State "Bleeding Kansas" for nothing.

In the years immediately before, during, and even for a little while after the American Civil War, there was some deadly serious fighting. Kansas was a free State, Missouri a slave State, although it never joined the Confederacy. Confederate sympathizers from Missouri would cross over and wreak havoc in Kansas, including in Lawrence.

On May 21, 1856, "the Sacking of Lawrence" occurred. On August 21, 1863, William Quantrill led Quantrill's Raiders (including a young pair of brothers named Frank and Jesse James) in a massacre, killing 164 people, all civilians. The football rivalry between Kansas and Missouri became known as the Border War, and, perhaps appropriately, was first played on October 31, 1891 -- Halloween.
The winner receives the Indian War Drum, also known as the Osage War Drum, with a Jayhawk logo on one side, and a block M with a Missouri Tiger head on the other. The rivalry was so nasty that it sometimes had to be played on neutral ground in Kansas City -- in Missouri's State, but considerably closer to Kansas' campus, with the ticket allotment evenly divided. It was played in Kansas City from 1891 to 1906, again from 1908 to 1910 (in St. Joseph, Missouri in 1907), in 1944 and '45 (probably due to wartime travel restrictions), and at Arrowhead Stadium from 2007 to 2011.
Missouri's move to from the Big 12 to the Southeastern Conference put an end to it, at least for football. As with the KU-KSU rivalry, there is a dispute as to the record, as the 1960 game was forfeited to Kansas by the league then known as the Big Eight, because Missouri used an ineligible player. According to Missouri, they lead 57-54-9. According to everybody else (including the Big 12 and the NCAA), Missouri leads 56-55-9 -- meaning a restart and a Kansas win in the next game would tie the series at 56-all.

Stuff.  There are souvenir stands at each school's stadium, but no team stores. KU's bookstore is in the Student Union, at 1301 Jayhawk Blvd., about a 5-minute walk south on Mississippi Street from Memorial Stadium. The KSU Campus Store is at 820 N. 17th Street, to the east of the stadium.

The best book available on KU sports is by the aforementioned broadcaster, Max Falkenstein: Max & the Jayhawks: 50 Years On & Off the Air With KU Sports, published with Doug Vance in 1996. And, as KU's other big rival is Missouri, in 2005, the sports staff of The Kansas City Star published Rivals! MU vs. KU: A Classic Sports Match-up, Since 1891. In 2000, Mark Stallard published Wildcats to Powercats: K-State Football Facts and Trivia.

During the Game. Neither Kansas fans nor Kansas State fans have a rough reputation. You should have no safety issues. But if you do manage to get a ticket for their game against each other, it's best to stick with the home fans.

What's a Jayhawk? It's a shortened form of Jayhawker, a term for guerrilla fighters in the Civil War, later generally applied to residents of Kansas and turned into the redheaded, blue-bodied bird familiar to college sports fans today. KU has used the indentifier since 1912. They have used a mascot named Big Jay since the 1960s, and his little friend (not son or brother) Baby Jay since 1971.

Like Northwestern, Kansas State's mascot is purple and named Willie the Wildcat. But K-State's Willie isn't much of a costume. It's just a papier-mache head on top of a guy in a football uniform, Number 0. Their band, The Pride of Wildcat Land, uses both "Wildcat Victory" and the legendary country song "The Wabash Cannonball" as fight songs. Being that they're in Kansas, "On the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe" might have been more geographically appropriate, but the Indiana-based "Wabash Cannoball" is a better tune.
After the Game. You (and, if you came that way, your car) should be safe. But there's not much to eat around either stadium, and you may have to go back to 9th Street in Lawrence, or to downtown Manhattan, to get something.

If you visit to Kansas is during the European soccer season, which has now begun again, the Red Lyon Tavern shows matches in Lawrence, at 944 Massachusetts Street, downtown. But in Manhattan, Kansas, you may be out of luck.