I’m probably not going to have a chance to get this into a column any time soon. So I’m going to use this blog, instead, to communicate with you an e-mail I received a couple of weeks ago from a Kansas State fan after KU won the national championship in basketball. It’s one of the best e-mails I’ve ever gotten _ funny, interesting, astute. So I have to share. It concerns the current state of K-State athletics as it compares to the athletic program at Kansas. Enjoy.
Tuesday morning, I awoke to a hail-damaged home, a 3-year-old nephew who is scared of the Easter Bunny and now “loves the Jayhawk,” and the prospect of another 20 years of condescending elitism from KU fans.
This year, our basketball team lost one of its best returning players, David Hoskins, to injury for the season. In contrast, KU would have lost its best returning player, Brandon Rush, except for an injury that kept him from bolting for the NBA. He proceeds to lead the Jayhawks to an NCAA championship, following the most unbelievable on-court meltdown this side of Pervis Pasco.
Although I am happy for my KU friends _ or to be more accurate, I try to be happy for them _ if there is a more spoiled fan base in the country than the Jayhawk basketball fan, I would like to know who it is.
At least in the recent past I could look forward to football season. That is, before KU hired Mark Mangino, reviled as a traitor by the Wildcats not just for leaving us for Oklahoma, but for the way in which he did so. He proceeds to use the Bill Snyder formula to win the Orange Bowl _ a bowl which, by the way, Missouri deserved to be playing in _ while our own coach was at home perfecting his “I am smarter than you are” routine. This attitude would be difficult to stomach under any circumstance, but especially when he has gone 0-for-2 against KU.
And while the future looks bright for KU, ours is in the hands of a university president who owes his career to one good hire.
I told you it was good stuff.
5 Comments
I would hate to be a K-Stater for the foreseeable future.
I would hate to be a K-Stater. Period.
I would hate to be a shocker for the foreseeable future.
I am a K-Stater and I love my team, win or lose. It is easy to be a fan when your team is winning. The test of a true fan is when their team is losing. It is extremely possible that the K-State programs will never be at the same level as the KU basketball program, but that’s not the end of the world. I’ll still be here wearing my purple!
I love beign a KStater and wouldn’t trade it for anything. Jayhawks are spoiled and Shockers…well your in Wichita, enough said. Bob your a classless hack of a jounalist. I find it ammussing the disdain you have fro Wildcat Athletics, oh, but wait, you don’t root for one team over another…riiigght. THis is great because you put this out there as if it is how the Wildcat faithful as a whole feel. Well, that isn’t the case. One debbie downer does not sum up our fan base. Do we have questions surrounding our main sports, yes, but it isn’t as bad as you want it to be. Once a Wildcat Always a Wildcat and wouldn’t trade it to be a pompous and arrogant jayhawk.