@wrwlumpy ...Another Omaha-related memory, sort of...
Before I transferred to KU I went to Rockhurst College (now Rockhurst U), where the KC-Omaha Kings had their practices. I had a student job in the athletic department and used to watch Archibald, Lacey and the others go through their paces. (My favorite player was a tall bald guy named Toby Kimball.) They always seemed to come up short in the playoffs, then when they got good, the owners hauled them off to Sacramento.
Great pix as always.
I've got plenty of Omaha memories. Used to go up to Ak-Sar-Ben racetrack every now and then. Just after graduation my KU girlfriend and I hit the daily double there. We drove back to Lawrence through the worst thunderstorm I can remember...had to pull off the highway a few times before the skies cleared to give us a glorious red sunset. After we got back to town we toasted our good fortune with Chivas at the Sanctuary club, upstairs from the Stables.
And as a high schooler I got to shake hands with Bobby Kennedy when he was speaking at the auditorium there, just a month before he died in LA.
Not our night.
They've gotten into our heads.
Build up an early lead before the crowd gets there !
@brooksmd I guess ESPN got the UK game due to a contractual obligation with the SEC. That's okay...everybody knows who the #1 team is.
@KUSTEVE Yeah, I got to see them a year later when they scrimmaged at Rockhurst College (now Rockhurst U), the night before they played the KC Kings. Awesome lineup.
@wrwlumpy WVA is also home to the Greenbrier Resort, where Tom Watson is their Emeritus Golf Pro. My brother stopped off there for breakfast last week when he drove from St. Louis to DC.
During the Cold War The US government kept an underground bunker there to relocate the Congress in case of nuclear attack. You can now tour parts of it.
@Crimsonorblue22 DAGGER ! CHIEFS 27-0, early in the 4th.
Texans fans about to make like Blue Jays fans, with an early exit...
Too bad about Maclin though.
@drgnslayr If you want to take the macro view of this, you could say that the road to the title is...the road.
Going back to our 2008 championship run, KU had the best (or tied for the best) road record of any Big XII team. Last year's 4 and 5 road record was an aberration, but even then, nobody else had a better one.
@DinarHawk Speaking of impressive halves, how about the Chiefs D ? 13-zip, late in the first half !
They've got Houston so flummoxed that their fans are booing their own QB !
Great day for my two favorite teams. Gordon re-ups with the Royals...nice to see David Glass open up the pocketbook. And Ken Griffey Jr. makes it into the Hall Of Fame !
@wissoxfan83 A little sidebar to that article's mention of the 1974 game when Notre Dame stopped UCLA's 88-game winning streak:
I was at AFH when the Irish played their next game, against KU a few days later. KU trailed most of the game but got to within two points late. We fouled Adrian Dantley, who missed the front end of a one-and-one Unfortunately we couldn't get the rebound, and ND got the win.
KU still made it to the Final Four that season but got beat by Marquette in the national semis. (The other game is the one everybody talks about...UCLA with Bill Walton vs. NC State with David Thompson. The Wolfpack beat the Bruins in double OT, on their way to the national title.)
Back then they still played a third-place game, so we had to face a pissed-off Walton. He was still upset about the NC State loss and Coach Wooden had to talk him into playing even 20 minutes. Didn't matter though...KU couldn't hit a shot and lost big.
This was the last season that you had to win your conference to make the NCAAs. The next year they started letting in at-large teams.
Amazing.
Our alumni group watching the game last night pretty much had the bar to ourselves, so the noise level in the place was all self-generated. (or Self-generated) A few of us collapsed on the floor at the end from sheer joy.
Gotta be the best wire-to-wire regular season game of any kind I've ever seen. A close second is the one in the '90s when Jacque Vaughn hit a buzzer-beating trey to beat Bobby Knight's Hoosiers. Still not quite the drama level or stakes of the 2008 or 1988 title games, but damn close.
Obviously I wish I'd been there. Also wish Hield had gone ahead and turned pro over the summer...would've saved us all a lot of grief.
Kudos to KU fans giving him the standing O after his postgame interview. He deserved it.
The only down side? My recorder shut off during the third OT, and I don't get ESPNU so I couldn't record the replay. Hope they run it again soon. Finally, the words "Instant classic" weren't media hype.
On February 14, 2011:
On "Jeopardy", the IBM computer Watson started a 3-day tournament against the show's all-time top money winners, Ken Jennings & Brad Nutter. Not surprisingly, Watson cleaned both their clocks.
A slow news day, unless you count the Arab Spring riots in Bahrain.
Top Movie: "Just Go With It", rom-com starring Jennifer Aniston & Adam Sandler
Billboard Number One song: "Grenade" by Bruno Mars
Jazz pianist George Shearing dies at age 91
NFL fans were going through withdrawal after their first weekend without football since July. The weekend before, Green Bay beat the Steelers in Super Bowl XLV.
Hope tonight turns out better than Big Monday did that night. Right after we got ranked #1, the Kitties clobbered us in the Octagon.
@Crimsonorblue22 You too ! Happy 2016 !
@Crimsonorblue22 And a little wine, of course...
Happy New Year to all my fellow board rats in the EST and CST time zones!
Still a little over an hour to go out here. Trying to stay awake with a late pizza-n-spaghetti dinner, watching the Young Frankenstein marathon on TV. Gonna shoot some fireworks off around midnight, then come inside and watch the big Space Needle show on TV.
Well. off to have a late bite. Thanks as always you guys...
HAWK-Y NEW YEAR EVERYBODY !!!!!!!!!!
@cragarhawk A little surprised that anyone could outrebound Ndiaje.
@HawkInMizery I usually avoid going out on NYE and St. Paddy's Day. Amateur night...
@HawkInMizery Sounds fun. My New Year's Eve is a little more subdued...pizza, shoot off a few Roman candles & bottle rockets, and watch the big Space Needle fireworks at midnight on TV. Then a big brunch at friends' house the next day.
@HawkInMizery Tannerite?
And on to 2016. Everybody got big New Year's Eve/Day plans ?
Kind of a subdued Rock Chalk Chant...
Ref was screened out on that call.
@KUSTEVE I was gonna say that, but I'm afraid to look past Saturday...gotta get past Baylor.
Wow...Sparty in deep doodoo.
Looks like I got back just in time for the 2nd-half buttkicking....after HCBS did the same to our guys in the locker room.
Just got home....only a 2-point lead ! WTF ? Wha happen ?
@Crimsonorblue22 The way the football team played this year, if they'd left the blanket in an alley in Lawrence, they might've taken the beer and left the blanket.
Or as they said in The Godfather: "Leave the gun. Take the cannoli."
Just wondering what Santa Hawk brought everybody for Christmas in the way of cool KU-related swag ?
A friend gave me a KU football blanket...not that unique in itself, but the story behind it is great:
She said she found it in an alley behind her house a couple of months ago, wrapped some cans of beer. She decided to wash it so it was nice and clean, and give it to the only Kansan she knew.
Now what are the odds that someone leaves a KU blanket in an alley some 2000 miles away from the Sunflower State? And that the person who finds it knows a Jayhawk?
(Would've liked the beer too, but hey, still a great gift).
Hope everybody's enjoying their holiday weekend !
Time to take a breather from all the holiday celebrating.
From here in the land of the Puget Sound and the snowy Cascade Mountains, I'd like to wish all my fellow Bucketeers a very Merry Christmas.
Thanks for all the creative and well thought-out posts this past year.! (Heck, even for the ones that left me scratching my head...)
Enjoy your holiday!
@brooksmd Happy Birthday Brooks !
Have a great Christmas everybody ! Hope Santa's good to you !
And...ROCK CHALK !!!!
Can't wait til this team puts two good halves together.
@Crimsonorblue22 Yeah I like 'em !
Get the chant ready.
Moonlight !
Crowd noise approaching golf clap status...
Just gotta get through this ugly stretch.
Count i1 !
Thank you Wayne.
@tundrahok Oh, I thought it was the egg nog...
@tundrahok I noticed that...the sound's better too.
So much for keeping the fans out of it...
The Mountain West Conference:
Motto: Remember Us? We Used To Be The WAC...
@Bwag Good to see Dana Jacobson. Liked her when she was on ESPN.
That theme music again...makes me feel like it's March Madness already !