Every time Kansas travels to Kansas State, you can count on seeing a few signs that read, “Welcome to Allen Fieldhouse West.”

Sure, the arena’s real name is Bramlage Coliseum, but it truly is the Jayhawks’ home away from home.

Kansas is undefeated in 16 games at K-State’s arena and hasn’t lost in Manhattan since a 1983 game in Ahearn Fieldhouse.

“It’s a remarkable streak,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “I respect it immensely. It’s something that isn’t going to take place very often, away from home, at any level.”

To understand how impressive this streak is, you must first realize how different the world was before it began.

Only NASA employees had computers. Tape decks and record players ruled the music world, and basketball players wore tiny shorts that left nothing to the imagination. In fact, the streak is older than all but two players on the current Jayhawk team: junior forward Moulaye Niang and junior guard Jeff Hawkins. Self was a sophomore at Oklahoma State.

“You can’t hide it,” Kansas State coach Jim Wooldridge said of his team’s 21-game home losing streak to Kansas. “People are going to repeat it, repeat it and repeat it, and you just can’t ignore it.

During the last 21 years, Kansas State and Texas A&M; have been the Big 12 teams that have failed to defeat Kansas at home. Nebraska has defeated the Jayhawks on its home court ten times, Colorado five and Texas Tech once. Even Baylor knocked off the Jayhawks in Waco, Texas, in 2001.

Three Kansas coaches — Larry Brown, Roy Williams and Self — have maintained the streak. Each of them, except Self, lost games to the Wildcats, but never on the road.

The strangest year of the streak was 1988 — the year Kansas won the national championship — when the Wildcats defeated the Jayhawks twice. The first victory was in Lawrence, by 11 points, and the second was in the Big Eight Tournament in Kansas City, Mo., by 15. But Danny and the Miracles were victorious in Manhattan, 64-63.

Kansas’ road dominance against its in-state rival boggles the mind. Kansas State points to its home game with Kansas every year as the biggest game on its schedule. The Wildcats give the Jayhawks their best shot, and it’s the only game of the year that regularly sells out.

“If we are fortunate enough to beat KU and end the streak, there’s a lot that would be attached to that kind of win,” Wooldridge said. “We’re going to address it, talk about it and challenge our team.”

Wooldridge said that beating Kansas would mean as much to his program as anything short of reaching the Final Four.

It’s laughable to think a coach would make that kind of assessment about one regular season game, but now that Kansas has ended its losing streak to Kansas State in football, the basketball streak has attained a larger-than-life status. Even the worst of teams pulls off an occasional upset against their arch-rival at home. But for whatever reason, the Jayhawks simply own the Wildcats. In addition to their 21-game road winning streak, they have reeled off 28 straight victories in the overall series.

K-State has not played terrible basketball for the entire two decades of the streak. Former NBA all-star Mitch Richmond played for the Wildcats in the late 1980s, including the 1988 game when the Wildcats played the Jayhawks in the Elite Eight for a trip to the Final Four. And, believe it or not, the Wildcats used to have a rich basketball tradition of their own. Their 10 Big Eight Conference championships were second only to Kansas’ 13.

It just has not mattered. In 1997, the year Kansas finished the season with a 34-2 record, Kansas needed a furious rally to escape Manhattan with a three-point win. In 2003, Kansas trailed late in the game. Nick Collision was fouled out and Bryant Nash came off the bench, threw down a few dunks and the streak lived on.

With players from the past 21 Jayhawk teams urging the team to keep this streak alive, you can bet that this year’s seniors don’t want to be remembered as the class that allowed Allen Fieldhouse West to be renamed Bramlage Coliseum.