First I want to thank my son Scott for creating the thread titled "50th Straight Year". The response from The Slant has been amazing and much appreciated. I also want to say thanks to my brother Chris who was mainly responsible for setting up the surprise recognition on the field yesterday. That was awesome. Thinking about all of this led me to look back on the many things that transpired over the past 50 years with respect to KU football. Here are some of the more memorable things that come to mind.
On September 12, 1970 while a freshman at KU I attended the home game against Washington State. Since that time I have never missed a home game. That's 50 years and 312 straight games (which includes 4 designated home games at Arrowhead). Why did I do this, that is simple to answer - I love KU football. It also has something to do with my Dad brainwashing me when I was a little kid to support KU (he was a non-scholarship player at KU in the late 40's). I can remember with anticipation sitting with him in the living room in front of the radio on Saturday afternoons listening to the play by play of the games. Ironically, yesterday's game against Baylor would have been my Dad's 92nd birthday.
I have been privileged to see some great players. My favorites, in no particular order were John Riggins, David Jaynes, the receiving tandem of Emmett Edwards/Bruce Adams, Nolan Cromwell, Laverne Smith, Willie Pless, Tony Sands, Bruce Kallmeyer, the defensive front tandem of Dana Stubblefield/Gilbert Brown, Todd Reesing, and Kerry Meier. The most memorable play was made by Kurt Knoff. He was involved in the play forever known in KU lore as "The Hit". It was the most bone crushing tackle ever made in Memorial Stadium. Both he and the ball carrier were knocked unconscious. They both recovered about 5 minutes after the hit, and Kurt played the remainder of the game (I'm sure he would have been ejected in today's environment, or at least would not have been allowed to return because of concussion protocal).
Someone asked me recently if I saw a lot of terrible football during that time. In reality, only the last 10 years have been really, really bad. In fact, through part of the 2016 season we had a winning record during my streak. My overall 50 year record was 149-162-2. A little surprisingly was our record during that time against MU was 14-7 (3 of those losses were designated home games at Arrowhead), and our record against K-State was 14-11. If I had to list my favorite wins (also in no particular order) it would be Nebraska in 2005 and 2007, Texas A&M in 1974 when they were ranked #5, UCLA in 1978 when they were in the top 10, MU in 1973 when we scored the go ahead points with basically no time left, 1984 against #2 ranked Oklahoma, the Tony Sands game against MU, and the K-State win in 2004.
Surprisingly, less than a handful of games were really affected by weather. Off-hand I can only think of the monsoon for Northwestern, the K-State ice game a few years ago, and the delay of the Baylor game back in 2007.
During the years I saw numerous things at Memorial Stadium. I believe we always had synthetic turf, I also believe early on the KU bench was on the east side (someone needs to respond to this and let me know if I am remembering that correctly). The band always did basically the same pre-game routine. The band changed locations throughout the stadium numerous times. Baby Jay was hatched from a giant egg at halftime of a game in the 70's. In the early years the south scoreboard was basically something you would see at a high school game. In the early years the students had individual assigned seating (freshmen got bad seats, and seniors got the best). For years, all games started at 1:30. Prior to the installation of the large video board, at many of the games there would be a thousand or more people sitting on the hill watching the game.
We went through 13 coaches (12 because you have to count Fambrough twice), starting with Pepper Rodgers all the way through Les Miles. The coaches, per my opinion, graded out as follows: Good coaches - Pepper Rodgers, Glen Mason, and Mark Mangino. Average to a little below average coaches - Bud Moore, Fambrough, and Mike Gottfried. Terrible to horrific coaches - Bob Valesente, Terry Allen, Turner Gill, Charlie Weis, and David Beaty. The jury is still out on Les Miles.
Anyway, sorry for the long post, I still don't know if I am going to be religious about continuing the streak going forward. If not, I guess it will be weird seeing a KU home game on TV. No matter what, I look forward to what the future of KU football holds. Thanks.
On September 12, 1970 while a freshman at KU I attended the home game against Washington State. Since that time I have never missed a home game. That's 50 years and 312 straight games (which includes 4 designated home games at Arrowhead). Why did I do this, that is simple to answer - I love KU football. It also has something to do with my Dad brainwashing me when I was a little kid to support KU (he was a non-scholarship player at KU in the late 40's). I can remember with anticipation sitting with him in the living room in front of the radio on Saturday afternoons listening to the play by play of the games. Ironically, yesterday's game against Baylor would have been my Dad's 92nd birthday.
I have been privileged to see some great players. My favorites, in no particular order were John Riggins, David Jaynes, the receiving tandem of Emmett Edwards/Bruce Adams, Nolan Cromwell, Laverne Smith, Willie Pless, Tony Sands, Bruce Kallmeyer, the defensive front tandem of Dana Stubblefield/Gilbert Brown, Todd Reesing, and Kerry Meier. The most memorable play was made by Kurt Knoff. He was involved in the play forever known in KU lore as "The Hit". It was the most bone crushing tackle ever made in Memorial Stadium. Both he and the ball carrier were knocked unconscious. They both recovered about 5 minutes after the hit, and Kurt played the remainder of the game (I'm sure he would have been ejected in today's environment, or at least would not have been allowed to return because of concussion protocal).
Someone asked me recently if I saw a lot of terrible football during that time. In reality, only the last 10 years have been really, really bad. In fact, through part of the 2016 season we had a winning record during my streak. My overall 50 year record was 149-162-2. A little surprisingly was our record during that time against MU was 14-7 (3 of those losses were designated home games at Arrowhead), and our record against K-State was 14-11. If I had to list my favorite wins (also in no particular order) it would be Nebraska in 2005 and 2007, Texas A&M in 1974 when they were ranked #5, UCLA in 1978 when they were in the top 10, MU in 1973 when we scored the go ahead points with basically no time left, 1984 against #2 ranked Oklahoma, the Tony Sands game against MU, and the K-State win in 2004.
Surprisingly, less than a handful of games were really affected by weather. Off-hand I can only think of the monsoon for Northwestern, the K-State ice game a few years ago, and the delay of the Baylor game back in 2007.
During the years I saw numerous things at Memorial Stadium. I believe we always had synthetic turf, I also believe early on the KU bench was on the east side (someone needs to respond to this and let me know if I am remembering that correctly). The band always did basically the same pre-game routine. The band changed locations throughout the stadium numerous times. Baby Jay was hatched from a giant egg at halftime of a game in the 70's. In the early years the south scoreboard was basically something you would see at a high school game. In the early years the students had individual assigned seating (freshmen got bad seats, and seniors got the best). For years, all games started at 1:30. Prior to the installation of the large video board, at many of the games there would be a thousand or more people sitting on the hill watching the game.
We went through 13 coaches (12 because you have to count Fambrough twice), starting with Pepper Rodgers all the way through Les Miles. The coaches, per my opinion, graded out as follows: Good coaches - Pepper Rodgers, Glen Mason, and Mark Mangino. Average to a little below average coaches - Bud Moore, Fambrough, and Mike Gottfried. Terrible to horrific coaches - Bob Valesente, Terry Allen, Turner Gill, Charlie Weis, and David Beaty. The jury is still out on Les Miles.
Anyway, sorry for the long post, I still don't know if I am going to be religious about continuing the streak going forward. If not, I guess it will be weird seeing a KU home game on TV. No matter what, I look forward to what the future of KU football holds. Thanks.
