My memorable moments
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Every fan remembers the big games and moments. The championships being the most obvious. But here are some good Jayhawk game memories I’ve had that probably zero or very few people will remember.
These are from my student in person years:
Larry Brown was pissed at the ref. The ball had rolled to Brown who picked it up and rolled it all the way down to the opposite end of the court. Amazingly the ref didn’t T him up.
Late night, 1987 and the team lip synching “Kansas City Here We Come”.
I always sat behind the basket in AFH. If we got there 2 hours early the seats were always empty, right on the floor. Danny grabbed a rebound and threaded a full court bounce pass from the right side of the lane to a streaking (yes he was clothed) player in stride who finished with a thunderous dunk.
A kid from Iowa St shot an airball. We just let him have it with the chant until finally Brown told us to leave him alone!
Some memorable TV moments that weren’t particularly notable.
Arkansas’ 40 minutes of hell was famous that year and they smacked us in the 1st half of an elite 8 game. But by the 5 minute mark of the 2nd half we had firm control and their big bodied center Oliver Miller went down on the court with an ‘injury’ he just lay there for like 5 minutes. He needed a rest is what it really looked like as we had amazingly worn out their team.
Another elite 8 bludgeoning in 2002, this time it was Oregon. I just remember Aaron Miles, Kirk, Gooden, etc just running them out of the Kohl Center gym that day. 100-80 final score and it was beautiful to watch.
Selden was famous for his dunk against Baylor in the Big12 tourney, but he had one that year against Kentucky and one of their NBA centers that was just astounding.
A few more in person games, but from the past decade or so. Texas’ fight song is the tune of “I’ve been working on the railroad”. They call it “Eyes of Texas” and after a KU win in Austin I was singing rock chalk to the same tune as we were walking out.
While at the NC game in the superdome in 2012 we were way up in the stratosphere with tickets purchased from a former bucketeer. A group of Kentucky fans directly in front of us who decided to stand the whole game. This was a very neutral section of the stands. I asked them to sit, the punk kid young enough to be my son pointed to the big screen and said you can watch it up there. grrrrrr
Illini fans hate Bill Self as much as some KU fans still hate Roy for leaving which of course are related. In the United Center for the Elite 8 a guy I was chatting with wearing U of I gear said he was there to cheer against Bill Self. I told him I understood, but there’s not a coach in the country who would turn down an opportunity to coach at KU. (fyi the next Chicagoan he should be targeting is Jaxson Davis. Most people around here don’t buy the 4 star rating. Should be higher. MARK MY WORDS!)
That’s all I can think of right now. Whatchu got?
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@wissox said in My memorable moments:
I always sat behind the basket in AFH. If we got there 2 hours early the seats were always empty, right on the floor.
Well, we must have run into each other at some point, @wissox . I tried to sit in the last row behind the basket every game. It was remarkably easy in the 80s!
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Most memorable in person moments -
Wilt Chamberlain coming back to have his jersey retired.
For Silvio Desousa’s WWE audition I was right on that baseline sitting during directly in front of Christian Braun’s mom. The actual best part about that game was hearing Mrs Braun’s mom voice when yelling at Christian. Dead giveaway that it was a players mom without even looking. lol
Saw many victories so the Acie Law IV game sticks with a guy. Losses suck!
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@dylans said in My memorable moments:
Most memorable in person moments -
Wilt Chamberlain coming back to have his jersey retired.
For Silvio Desousa’s WWE audition I was right on that baseline sitting during directly in front of Christian Braun’s mom. The actual best part about that game was hearing Mrs Braun’s mom voice when yelling at Christian. Dead giveaway that it was a players mom without even looking. lol
Saw many victories so the Acie Law IV game sticks with a guy. Losses suck!
Interesting memory of the brawl. So Christians mom was yelling at him to stay out of it?
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@wissox Nah, she was yelling at Christian to run harder, get the rebound, hustle on defense. She was pushing him from the stands. Sounded like any HS gym or baseball game, it was a bit different than the normal crowd noise in Allen Fieldhouse though!
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Biggest game I’ve been too was one where KU unfortunately got their asses handed to them, unless you ask the NCAA who will say the game didn’t happen. The 2018 Final Four game against Villanova. That Villanova was so freaking good and among the best college teams I’ve ever seen.
I’ve also had the good fortune to see KU in two top 5 match ups including my senior night game in 2010 against KSU that was not on TV. KU stomped KSU by 17 in that one. Sherron didn’t have his game game, but still led KU that afternoon.
The other top 5 match up was in February of 2020 at Baylor in Waco. It was an 11 am tip and College Day was there. Ochai had his absolute worst game of his Kansas career that day going scoreless in 39 minutes, but Doke made up for it with the biggest game of his KU career going for 23 and 19 and leading KU to a 3 point win that cemented KU as the title favorites that season.
Also, the first 4 times I went to watch KU play Texas in Austin were all losses including one of KU’s 3 losses during the 2008 title run.
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@wissox enjoying the thread. Great stuff!
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@Texas-Hawk-10 wow not only 2 top 5 match ups but also Ws.
Also, the first 4 times I went to watch KU play Texas in Austin were all losses including one of KU’s 3 losses during the 2008 title run.
Good thing Texas kicked Barnes to the curb and then deposited themselves on that B12 curb.
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Big 12 has had a good run of basketball besides our success. Baylor, Houston, Texas Tech also in championship games. Tech could have won had a non call turned differently. Houston lost closely but in a brutal way and I’m sure that kid is having some sleepless nights. Of course in crunch time we had Sherron and Mario to perform miracles and I guess Houston didn’t.
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@wissox When was Houston in the championship game, I missed that. I only watch KU basketball, so that wasn’t on my radar.
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@dylans They were really good this year and while the worst team in recent KU history should have beaten them, we didn’t and instead they made it all the way to the championship and forgot to shoot before the buzzer allowing Florida to win. (I know you were joking…or were you?)
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I didn’t see KU lose in AFH until my senior year. Then we lost 3 out of 4 home games to our last three opponents in the 88 championship run. Sweet, very sweet revenge.
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@wissox said in My memorable moments:
@dylans They were really good this year and while the worst team in recent KU history should have beaten them, we didn’t and instead they made it all the way to the championship and forgot to shoot before the buzzer allowing Florida to win. (I know you were joking…or were you?)
Not joking. I only watch KU basketball. That’s a horrible way to lose. Just holding the ball. Ugg. I’m sure I heard Florida won and Houston lost, but I repressed it. All KU baby!
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A lot of them…but the best of the bunch was KU/UCLA in late '95. I was a sophomore…camped out with my buddies…ended up in the front row under the basket on KU’s end. Jacque Vaughn’s spin move between two defenders to put KU ahead after coming back from down 15+ was right in front of me. Unbelievable. I have a loud voice and I couldn’t hear myself screaming full throat. I also remember Lester Earl being on official visit that day and I told my buddy, “If he doesn’t come here after that, someone else is paying him.” Funny how that turned out.
Also…the next KU home game at the Fieldhouse will my daughter’s first…headed to KU as a freshman from CO. #parentingwin
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@focojayhawk Wow, great memory. Don’t remember that one. When I taught in Baton Rouge, I taught Bobby Earl, Lesters nephew who sadly tried to stick someone up and got shot in the face. Such a shame.
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One very fond memory actually took place in Manhattan. A long time ago. Must have been the early 90’s (it’s not even 5am, don’t feel like researching it).
For some reason I was at the game by myself. We got our assses handed to us the whole game. Just played awful, so I was pretty quiet.
We fought back slowly and by the last possession we were down 2, I believe. With 3 or 4 seconds left Steve Woodberry brought the ball up the court quickly and, with time running out, launched a loooong 3 point shot which he drained and we won by one point!
I launched out of my seat, arms raised, double fist pump and screamed “HELL YEEEEAAAAHHH!”
And everyone in the building heard me because, after Steve’s shot, it got stone cold quiet in there and apparently I was the only KU fan there that day.
It was a long, tense walk to my car.
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One of my favorite basketball memories at KU actually occurred on court when I got my one slight taste of D1 basketball. Pretty amazing that I got even one considering my total lack of physical talent (slow, no hops, uncoordinated), a genuine triple threat to my own team. But I had some size and (I thought) some strength. While in grad school in KU (84-88) I played a fair amount of pick up basketball in the rec gym. On a few occasions we were joined by the recently graduated Calvin Thompson who was still playing in the G league equivalent of the time, in Topeka I think. He was obviously an order of magnitude (or two) better than anyone else on the court so he mostly joked around and had a good time while we desperately tried (and usually failed) to score on him. He didn’t shoot very often, but he would occasionally decide to score. We knew it was coming because he’d be out on the wing and he’d hold the ball for a moment with a wicked smile on his face. All 5 of us on the opposing team would try to stop him by any means; holding, ramming, shoving. Did no good. He’d go through us effortlessly and slam the ball home. I gained an appreciation of the speed and strength it takes to play D1 ball on those days that you don’t get from being in the stands or watching on TV. Fun times!
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As I recall, in Allen Fieldhouse just before tipoff between Walt Wesley and Nick Pino, a banner unfurled over the scoreboard above center court. A Kansas State banner!
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@ImmunoHawk I had that humbling moment as well. While I was short, I was also slow and despite all that i thought I could play on the womans team! Well in a pickup game (maybe you played since I was there at KU at the same time) there was a woman playing who was better than anyone on the court. I missed seeing Lynette Woodard playing by a few years, and thought someone this good has to be Lynette Woodard! I asked her after the game if she was Lynnette and she laughed. She said she was on the womans team, I asked her if she was a starter and she laughed like, are you crazy. She was a seldom used last player off the bench. OK, I’m not good enough to play on the womens team!
@KU4KU That’s a great story that took some great planning by some students to pull that off!
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@wissox I did get in a couple pickup games with members of the women’s team. While clearly I was the worst player on the court at least I could be marginally competitive. I was amazed at the physicality of the women’s game. Had to rely on my instincts from being a defensive lineman in high school football to survive playing in the paint.
Had a comparable experience when I was in the navy, serving at the Bethesda Naval hospital (now called Walter Reed) outside DC. I was shooting around with my pal Kenny, a skinny guy not much more talented than me. The only other people in the gym were a pudgy girl wearing a University of Maryland sweatshirt and three guys who thought they were hot stuff. So the three of them challenged us to a game, badly concealing their laughter about how badly they were going to beat us. That was my expectation as well. Turns out that the gal played like (and probably was) a D1 player. She made it rain from 3 point land. None of the hot stuff guys could guard her one on one, and when they doubled her she’d hit Kenny or me with a perfect pass for a layup. It was a slaughter, but not the one I expected. Our opponents kept screaming at each other “can’t you guard her?” While Kenny and I were the ones trying not to laugh.
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Speaking of Robinson Gym, one day I was in there and a dude asked me if I’d help him rebound his shots. He said he was practicing and while I thought it was an odd request, it turned out to be pretty cool when he said his name was Darnell Valentine! I knew the name, but hadn’t seen him play.
