Monday, December 1, 2008
Word had made its way through campus that ESPN analyst Digger Phelps would be there. So The Wheel was packed.
It was March 1, a Saturday afternoon, hours before Kansas would face the fighting Michael Beasleys and just after Phelps and Rece Davis had wowed the Allen Fieldhouse crowd at College GameDay.
Now Phelps wanted to wow another group. He got up from his Wangburger meal, quieted the restaurant and gave a speech that left them cheering.
It was one of the bigger celebrity appearances in a while at The Wheel, and owner Rob Farha wanted to remember it. So he asked Phelps to contribute to a Wheel tradition.
He asked him to sign his name on the wooden Jayhawk mural in the back corner of the bar, where his signature now rests, next to those of several other public figures — sports and other.
The boards have been up since 1987, and the first people to sign were basketball players. Almost everyone from the 1988 team is on there, and members of the Final Four teams from 1991 and 1993 joined them. There are the big names — Roy Williams, Larry Brown, Rex Walters — and the not-so-big ones — Sean Tunstall, Scooter Barry and Macolm Nash for instance.
A few feet away, in the corner, The Wheel showcases the signatures of Phelps and other recent additions. There’s the late George Mikan, the first great big man and Mr. Basketball himself. His son, Terry, lived in Lawrence for many years, and Mikan often came to The Wheel.
There’s Matt Gogel, a former KU golfer who won the Pebble Beach Pro-Am in 2002. About three or four weeks after that PGA victory, he was at the Wheel, in town for the Missouri basketball game, and signed the board.
There’s John Riggins, the former KU and NFL Hall of Fame running back, up there next to John Hadl, a KU quarterback and NFL star.
Coming off a Super Bowl year for Riggins and the Redskins, Sports Illustrated wanted to do a story on him for the 1983 season preview. He told them he’d do it, only if they interviewed him at The Wheel.
Sports Illustrated came. The article featured a picture of him sitting on the front porch.
There’s George Brett, the only Royals’ player in the Hall of Fame. He was in Lawrence in October of 1997 to watch the dedication of Budig Hall for his good friend Gene Budig. Afterwards, he stopped at The Wheel, where only four people were eating. They didn’t recognize him. Farha did and asked him to sign.
So Brett’s name is up there. So is former Royals teammate Brian McRae. The last two KU Chancellors, Budig and Robert Hemenway, have signed. And so has Conrad Dobler, one of the most intense players in NFL history. His daughter graduated from here a few years ago.
Phelps was the last one to sign. Farha wishes he could’ve gotten Phelps’ co-workers Scott Van Pelt and Neal Everett, but it’s been too busy when they’ve visited. Right now, he has no idea what kind of celebrity might show up next and sign the board.
“It just kind of happens,” he said. “You don’t really plan on it.”
— — Edited by Ramsey Cox
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