ETC • ETC •
6 BIG 12
Jesse Gilbert, Chicago freshman, and Catherine Robidou, Council Grove freshman, wave the wheat after a touchdown during the homecoming football game against Iowa State.
Mike Gunnoe/KANSAN
Student Discount Program
40% OFF Your ENTIRE order all day, everyday Use Coupon Code
JAYHAWK
Continued on page 5
home game today. They get up because there's too much out there that they can't miss. Yes, the game's important. But so is the tailgating.
Continue on the journey and there will be another batch of students clustered on a front yard by an arena of two angled wooden planks, ten feet apart and facing each other. The game is called cornhole and its basic rules are compatible with the drunk and weary. Two teams of two throwers toss bean bags into a hole located toward the top of the slanted timber. Call it tailgate target practice. Onlookers with red cups and hot dogs in hand "ooh" and "ahh" at every fling.
Look around the stadium's perimeter and there will undoubtedly be a group of friends huddled on a front porch, chuckling about last night's excursions, preparing for a game of beer pong.
Next to the showdown is an extensive and crammed grill with fire bursting from its mouth. The chef doesn't look daunted. Outside of the yards, some make their way to the stadium in search of the perfect seat. Others are just thirst-quenching morning guzzlers, roaming like vultures hunting for their prey.
On the hill outside of the stadium, distanced from the drunken youth-infested houses, mammoth white and blue tents encompass friends and families, beer and barbecue. A father and a son are playing catch. A mother and a daughter are sitting in lawn chairs applying ketchup and mustard to their burgers. A stooped old man decked out in KU gear is holding the hand of his granddaughter. Together they stroll down the hill as the old man points left and then right, describing each and every minuscule detail through the lens of an experienced Jayhawk. The young girl's head bobbles with every point and change of subject as the two approach the glorious stadium together.
As fans make their way into a packed Memorial Stadium, endless lines before vendors selling hot dogs and Coke intersect upward in between the sloping zig-zags of students on their way to their seats. At the top of the stairs, the sun greets their arrival with a blinding glare. Then they regain their vision and look heavenward toward a herd of belligerent blue-shirted students. This is home.
Then the home team dashes onto the field, only to be welcomed by the Jayhawk faithful with a pounding roar of euphoria and anticipation.
The kickoff is seconds away and it's time for the student section to sound their jingle. Dangling car keys reflect a golden glow from the rays of the sun and chime a familiar song. Kansas kicker Jacob Brandstetter steps into it and blasts the football into the cloudless cyan sky. More than 50,000 heads tilt up and then down, following the ball until it drops into the hands of the opposing return man. This man is now a victim.
The game has begun.
THE WAVE OCTOBER 23,2009
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN