Hunter S. Thompson, the self-proclaimed “gonzo” journalist, brought his addictions and his wit to the University of Kansas almost 18 years ago to the day of his tragic death. The University Daily Kansan staff reporter, Jennifer Forker, covered the event and spent an entire day with Thompson.

Like his idol, Ernest Hemingway, Thompson killed himself Feb. 20, with a shotgun blast to the head. Author of the book, “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” Thompson was known for his substance abuse and his derisive wit.

Riding to the airport with a University student liaison, Forker did not know what to expect.

“First of all, we spent several hours trying to find him and get him out of the airport,” Forker said.

Forker and the liaison waited for almost an hour because Thompson had wandered into the bowels of the airport where the baggage was handled. Eventually, Thompson found them.

“We didn’t know who he was going to have with him,” Forker said. “We were a little surprised to see the people he brought.”

Accompanying Thompson were famous pornographers Jim and Artie Mitchell, and a young unnamed girlfriend, whom Thompson referred to as his “assistant.”

The University provided a limousine and a car for the Kansan writer and student liaison, Forker said. Thompson would not take the limousine and demanded the two students drive him to the University.

Once in the car, Thompson had to stop for liquor and food, because he said he had not eaten in two days. The students went to a liquor store, where Thompson bought a bottle of scotch, and then to Hardee’s for roast beef and fish sandwiches, on which Thompson only nibbled.

“He drank nearly the entire ride back and began acting obnoxious,” Forker said. “He started squishing ketchup packets against the seats of the car.”

By the time the Kansan reporter and KU liaison delivered Thompson to the Kansas Union, he was a half-hour late.

Students were yelling, and the room was filled with, what Forker called at the time, “smoke, confusion and more smoke.”

The event was supposed to be a speech, Forker said, but Thompson turned it into a question and answer. He asked for a question from the person who “is the most pissed off and articulate, and whoever is the ugliest and the meanest.”

Students at the speech came with different expectations for what they would hear.

“I kind of expected a verbal brawl,” said William Volmut, Topeka senior at the time, in the original Kansan article on the event.

The question and answer session lasted for about an hour, and culminated with one audacious student asking him why he came, and asking if it was because of the money.

A little slowed by the booze, Thompson pondered and then answered the question.

“No, I just wanted to come out here and talk to you guys,” Thompson said. “I was puzzled as to what the college people were thinking.”

The question would be the last indelible memory Thompson would leave at the University. The answer left an impression with many of the attendees.

“Maybe he slurs his speech all the time,” said Jim Farquhar, Olathe sophomore at the time, in the article. “I think he was high.”

Sitting in the stands watching the people leave, Forker remembered that not all people felt the way she did.

“I remember sitting there realizing that his fans loved him; they ate it up,” Forker said. “He personally repulsed me, and I didn’t understand the appeal.”

After his death, Forker does not have the fondest memories of Thompson.

“Ever since the interview, people have given me his books to read, but I never do,” Forker said.

The last wish of Thompson was to have his remains shot from out of a cannon over his Colorado ranch.

Thompson, then and now, epitomized a line in “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” he was “too weird to live and too rare to die.”