Saying good-bye to Max and booing Bush - I love basketball!

We went to the last KU home game last night. It is often referred to as "Senior Night" because it is the last time the senior players play on their home court. Last night's game was extra special because Max Falkenstien, voice of the Jayhawks for sixty years, broadcast his last game from Allen Fieldhouse. I love Max. I grew up listening to KU games (football and basketball) on the radio. In the time before cable, satellites and package sports subscriptions the only way my family could keep up with KU sports was by listening to Max call the plays on the radio. Anyway there was a great program at half-time where Max shared a few thoughts, stories and said good-bye. As a going away gift the university gave him a bronze Jayhawk statue and "retired" the number "60" for him. Max's number hangs among the jersey numbers of KU basketball greats like Wilt Chamberlain, Lynette Woodward, Danny Manning, Charlie Black and Paul Pierce. I thought that was a pretty cool thing for the university to do. It was also fitting since Max has been an announcer for 60 years. He has broadcast every men's basketball game in Allen Fieldhouse since it was build over fifty years ago and has only missed doing a few games over the years. He's an institution for those of us who follow Kansas sports.

Another special "game" moment came during a time-out. To keep the crowd "entertained" they do all kinds of stuff during time-outs. Cheerleaders come out and do routines, they announce specials like "take your ticket stub from tonight's game to Advantage and get a free gallon washer fluid", the mascot delivers a pizza, they shoot t-shirts at the crowd (they didn't last night though) and sometimes the announcer directs people to look at the jumbo-tron to watch short videos or replays/highlights. One of the usual time-out distractions is a "Guess what year these events happened" quiz. The basic concept is they flash a picture on the screen which followed shortly by some text to help give context to the picture and a give us a "hint" as to the year in question. Last night's quiz was really really lame but, for once, it was also really really entertaining because people ended up booing Bush.

The first picture they flashed in their little quiz was a picture of GW. It was that dumbass looking "official" portrait one. You've seen it. He's got that goofy grin like he's just been caught doing something he wasn't supposed to being doing and is trying to laugh his way out of it. The statement accompanying the picture said something like "in this year, George W. Bush defeated John F. Kerry in the presidential election" or something equally lame. The entertaining part was the crowd's reaction. As soon as Bush's picture flashed people stopped talking and stared at it. My heart froze and my first thought was "omigawd, when did they start flashing that asshole's picture at games?" I've been to some games this season (not as many as I would have liked to have gone to) but this picture just hit me the wrong way. It was out of place. It seemed inappropriate to flash that idiot's picture in the middle of a basketball game. I'd forgotten it was part of some stupid time-out entertainment nonsense. It suddenly took a lot of enjoyment out of being in the fieldhouse.

As that stupid insipid grin was burning its way into my brain, I suddenly had darker thought, suddenly I felt a chill go up my spine as some bizarro Orwellian feeling came over me. Just as I was drifting off into a Twilight Zone world of Big Brothers-fascist fuhrer/Fire Sign Theater "stream-of-consciousness" I was suddenly jolted back to reality by all the booing. It started off low, like a small rumble, but quickly grew in intensity. People were on their feet booing a picture of Bush at a Kansas basketball game! I saw more than one bird being flipped toward the screen and people shaking their heads and turning their backs to him in disgust. It was beautiful. My husband looked at me and I looked at him. We were both some what in shock but then I realized we weren't the only ones. I think the booing took the Bush supporters by surprise.

The booing was well underway before any of Bush's supporters (yes, sadly there still are some around here) were able to get to their feet and start clapping. For about forty seconds (the approximate length Bush's picture was on the jumbo-tron) there was booing with a small amount of clapping and "yeas" ringing in the rafters of Allen Fieldhouse. As they flashed the second picture in the "guess what year it is quiz" to help us guess which year it was they were hinting at (:eyes:) I don't think anyone was looking the video screen any more much less even noticed it was still there. My husband sat down and pulled me into the seat next to him. He was very excited and he kept saying "they're booing, they're booing. They are booing Bush." He was clearly still in shock. I realized he was going to sit there and mumble incoherently to himself for a while so I took the opporunity to look around where we were sitting to see what people around us were doing. There were some rather loud conversations going on around us. As I looked around, trying to match the raised voices with people, I noticed there were a lot of people busy in conversations, some were quite animated, ranging from Bush's inaction during Katrina to Cheney's shooting accident. I caught little snippets of conversations here and there. It was weird. It felt like I had stepped into the Twilight Zone but not the one I expected.

As I sat there in Allen Fieldhouse with the sound of the booing directed at Bush echoing in my head and listening to people talk - openly talk - politics, I remembered this was the same Allen Fieldhouse where Bill Clinton was greeted with a standing ovation by a capacity crowd less than two years ago. This was the same Allen Fieldhouse that held 19,000 people who enthusiastically greeted Bobby Kennedy in 1968. I thought to myself, maybe Kansas isn't as "red" as people think. Allen Fieldhouse was full of people - many from Johnson County - booing the sitting pResident.

To tell you the truth, out of all the magical moments last night - the senior speeches, Max's farewell, winning the game - the most precious ones were the sound of that booing and the sparkle in my husband's eyes as he repeated the phrase "they're booing" over and over again to himself.

I love going to basketball games.

goosebumps!

and it gave me a renewed sense of hope that the political tide is turning in Kansas. We taped the game but apparently the quiz was given during a TV time-out and so it didn't "make it" to the big screen. Those are moments I will carry in my heart for some time to come.

to get you through the bad times. I just gave myself a little time to remember when we won our city ordinance vote last March 1. Those things stay with you and spur you on to greater effort. Hopefully more people from that game will begin to get involved because of the spirit they came away with.

That is so awesome.

as much as I love going to KU games (football and basketball) I have gotten annoyed with the red mentality I've been exposed to. In 2004, a group of my friends (actually my highway blogger group) had an unpleasant encounter in the football parking lot when they expressed their views of the Iraqi invasion and Bush. It wasn't pretty and these beautiful women (many of them teachers) were subjected to catcalls and other rude remarks which she related in the November 2004 issue of The Lawrencian (warning PDF document).



With this little excerpt from my friend Retta's article as background I think you have a better sense of why the actions of the fans at the basketball game were so momentous for me.

For a second there, you made me like KU.

we almost liked you for a second. ;)

BTW, there was someone at Rex's party that keeps asking about you and wants to know if you're coming out to Rex's in April.

When is the April party again? And who is this mystery person of whom you speak?

edited for twisted grammar and spelling

a Saturday.

As for your second question I'll PM you a name. I'm not sure I know who it is but Rex does. All I know, everytime I see Rex he says X asked him about evlbstrd.

:hug:

:loveya:

I really enjoyed your article, and it brought back memories for me. Memories of Darnell Valentine doing things on the b-ball court that I don't think had ever been done in Allen Fieldhouse, memories of the first time I heard "Rock-chalk Jayhawk" murmured throughout the Fieldhouse as if Phog was talking himself, and of Danny Manning doing things (again) that I had never before seen on a b-ball court by a big man.

The only trouble I have with your posts is that it makes me regret moving home to Wichita after graduating. How can all of you from Lawrence publish this stuff, and at the same time lament everyone moving back to Lawrence when they're older. Hell, I was born in Lawrence - how many residents up there now can claim that?

By the way, if you ever start charging me rent, I'll probably start staying longer, as paying will relieve me of the guilt I feel for hanging around.