Wednesday, November 4, 2009
More than 40 years have passed since the screaming voices of Terry and Marty Davis, class of ’66, joined those of their fellow students in the student section in Allen Fieldhouse. They have seen some things change through the years, Marty said. Students never had to pay for tickets back then. They never had to camp out for seats either.
(From left) Michael Blair, Galena junior, A.J. Sidhu, Olathe junior, and Danielle Fuller, Olathe sophomore, throw torn up newspaper in the air during player introductions at the game against Fort Hays State Tuesday. Kansas won 107-68.
But as the couple returned to campus for the men’s basketball exhibition game against Fort Hays State, Terry said it all still had a familiar feel. While they drove from their home in Raytown, Mo., to Lawrence and re-entered Allen Fieldhouse, every ounce of old excitement they once felt as freshmen inside the arena returned in full force.
“When we were kids, we went to all the games, all the time,” Terry said. “It was different then, a little, but still pretty much raved fans.”
Terry said he thought the team’s No. 1 preseason national ranking this season made the fanfare seem particularly ravenous.
“It was still pretty wild then,” Terry said. “It may have gotten even wilder.”
Among the new wave of freshman joining the fray of red and blue last night was Cody Janousek, Lawrence freshman, who donned an old Sasha Kaun jersey tee and a Kansas flag he flung around his neck as a cape. As long as the Jayhawks won, Janousek said, the flag would continue fly atop his shoulders for every game.
“I probably won’t wash the cape,” Janousek said. “I’ll keep the cape like this all season.”
Janousek said he had attended Kansas games on various occasions since he was 5 or 6 years old. But he said being able to one day join the ranks of the roaring student section had always been a goal of his.
“They all had the newspapers, waiting for the players to come out and they ripped it up and threw it. It looked like the coolest thing ever,” he said.
Grace Olson, Houston freshman, said even though she wasn’t raised in Lawrence, both of her parents attended the University and quickly turned her into an avid Jayhawks fan. She said she too remembered feeling frustrated one game when her brother, a student at the time, left her and her parents to join his college contemporaries.
“I was just so jealous because he looked like he was having so much fun in the student section and I couldn’t be there,” Olson said.
As excited as she felt anticipating the tip off she watched alongside her peers, Olson said she was preparing for an equally exciting and new experience at the next game.
Olson is a freshman member of the KU cheer squad and attended the game with junior teammate Edneesha Bell, Lee's Summit, Mo. She will return again with Bell in one week to lead her classmates during the men’s basketball matchup with Pittsburg State on Nov. 10. Bell, her teammate, said though she loved the limelight of cheering and doing stunts on the floor, some moments in the stands were irreplaceable.
“My favorite is during the free throws,” Bell said. “They either do the wave or they do the popcorn.”
But Bell said no matter where she cheered from, she anticipated this year’s team would provide impressive results for its fans.
“We have a lot of good players this year,” Bell said. “I want us to win that National Championship so bad. This is only my second year here, but this year is going to be awesome, I have a feeling.”
— Edited by Tim Burgess
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