ESPN to air raising of championship banner

By B.J. Rains

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

The 16,300 fans at Allen Fieldhouse for the Jayhawks’ Nov. 18 game against Florida Gulf Coast won’t be the only witnesses to the raising of the 2008 National Championship Banner into the rafters.

The banner will be lifted live on ESPN during a special live broadcast of ESPN College GameDay airing from Chapel Hill, N.C., before North Carolina hosts Kentucky later that night.

“It’s going to be really exciting,” sophomore center Cole Aldrich said. “It’s going to be a special night.”

A commemorative banner will be raised during Late Night in the Phog on Oct. 17 and will remain in the south rafters of the fieldhouse all season.

The official banner — which will look identical to the four national championship banners and will read “National Champions 2008” — will be raised alongside those banners in the north end of the fieldhouse during a pregame ceremony before the Jayhawks host Florida Gulf Coast in the second game of the CBE Classic.

“Even seeing the temporary banner go up at Late Night is going to be sweet,” Aldrich said. “I mean, that’s one of the reasons why I came here, to help Kansas win a national title. We had a great year last year. It was the most fun I’ve ever had playing basketball. Seeing the banner go up is going to be special.”

ESPN is airing a special on Nov. 18, showing 23 consecutive hours of live college basketball games starting with Memphis hosting UMass at midnight EST. In all, the ESPN family of networks will televise 14 games, including one women’s game, Iowa at Kansas, which will be at 1 p.m.

“ESPN was planning that special day and we told them what our plan was and they were all for it,” Associate Athletics Director Jim Marchiony said. “It will be at some point during the show, we don’t have that worked out yet.”

Aldrich and the Jayhawks hope this won’t be the only national championship banner they see raised during their time at Kansas.

“Coach Self told us at the ring ceremony that once you win one, you get greedy and want to get another one,” Aldrich said. “Once you get that second one, you’re going to want a third. Once you reach that top pinnacle in sports, you always want to get back, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

— — Edited by Mary Sorrick

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