The scene was one of the more memorable moments in the Mark Mangino era at Kansas.

It was 2004 — the Texas Longhorns last trip to Lawrence — and the Jayhawks were on the verge of pulling off the unthinkable upset. A questionable offensive pass interference call late in the game robbed Kansas of the victory, but what happened during the postgame press conference will be remembered long past Mangino’s career at Kansas.

“You know what this is all about, don’t you?” Mangino said after the game. “That’s right — BCS. That’s what made a difference in this game. That’s what made a difference in the call in front of their bench — dollar signs.”

Mangino implied that the Big 12 Conference wanted Texas to win the game so they could make the BCS, which would have brought in a large sum of money for the league. He was fined $5,000 by the conference and issued an apology soon after.

Mangino was trying to build a program, and he said he wasn’t going to be pushed around by the conference or the league’s bigger and higher spending teams.

“I appreciate if any coach goes out and sticks up for his team,” said linebacker Joe Mortensen, who was was redshirting and standing on the sidelines during the game. “We knew that he had our back and we felt that it was an unjust call. He said it and I know he got fined and got in trouble and ESPN showed it, all that stuff. But we knew he had our backs — that’s the most important stuff. The people in here, we could count on him.”

Mangino wouldn’t talk about the outburst during Tuesday’s press conference but did speak about the rant during a luncheon for The National Football Foundation and the Football Writers Association of America last spring.

“We had lost some difficult ball games that year, and our kids after that game were just crushed,” Mangino said in May. “I had never been around a team that had been so disheartened about a loss. So I just warned people, some administrators, on my way to the press room, what I was going to do, and it was to save the team.

“I knew I was going to get criticism for it and take some bullets, but Kansas hadn’t had a winning program for many years, we were trying to get it on its feet. We were getting close but just couldn’t get it over the hump, so I took a bullet for it.”

Most current players weren’t on the team at the time, but safety Darrell Stuckey was in the stands on a recruiting visit. He remembers the play - and the ensuing rant - like it was yesterday.

“I saw Charles catch the ball and everybody was cheering and then all of a sudden we see the flag come in,” Stuckey said. “It was thrown late, and I was like ‘Oh man, this is not going to be good.’”

Like Mortensen, Stuckey was proud with the way his future coach stood up for his team and was behind the coach 100 percent.

“I was totally behind him,” Stuckey said. “I was like, ‘Yeah!’ Its one of those things where it shows the character of a coach. It showed that he cared about his players and that he wanted a fair game for his players. Coach Mangino knew the consequence that potentially could happen and he still fought for his players. At the time we were a struggling program and we were trying to gain respect and he felt like they were taking advantage of that.”

The rant was a stepping stone for Mangino and the Jayhawks, who had gone 0-8 in the Big 12 just two years before and were trying to turn the KU football program into one of respectability.

A win over No. 7 Texas would have done wonders in jump-starting the turnaround, and Mangino felt his team had a hard-earned victory stolen from them. Not only did he want the league and the country to know that Kansas football was on the rise, but he wanted his players to know as well.

“It showed that KU is not going to be just another doormat for the marquee teams in the conference to walk over, just because it’s better for everybody if they end up going to the BCS,” said John Larson, who was a redshirt during the 2004 season.

“That’s something I’ve always admired in coach — his honestly and forthrightness throughout whatever is going on. If he felt like it was a bad call, he was going to say so.”

Mangino said in May that he wished he would have handled the situation better. His players, however, are glad and thankful for what he did.

And his outburst appears to have worked. The Jayhawks were 11-23 under Mangino before the rant with and 32-16 since.

— - Edited by Scott Toland