6 FEATURE
(From left) Michael Blair, Galena junior, A.J. Sidhu, Olathe junior, and Danielle Fuller, Olathe sophomore throw up-newspaper in the air Students have a tradition of tossing newspaper confetti into the air as the Jahwayk starting line is introduced.
NOTHING LIKE KANSAS BASKETBALL
Many unique traditions add to the experience of watching a Kansas basketball game in Allen Fieldhouse
By Brenna Hawley bhawley@kansan.com
When college basketball fans walk into Allen Fieldhouse to watch the No.1-ranked Jayhawks play this season, they are walking into a building filled with tradition. After all, the inventor of basketball started the Kansas basketball program. From newspaper to statues, Curtis Marsh, program director for KU Info, and Jim Marchiony, associate athletics director, explain some of Kansas basketball's most beloved traditions.
Throwing newspaper
The opposing team's lineup is announced and the student section holds up thousands of newspapers, ignoring the other team's star forward. Then the starting five Jayhawks come off the bench, and students throw up a shower of torn-up newspaper confetti. Curtis Marsh, director for KU Info, says it's likely this tradition started during the Larry Brown era of coaching, but probably started after a group of college students saw
something similar on TV.
"It's obvious that the students love it, and I really do think that the other fans in the arena get as much of a charge out of seeing it as the students do doing it," Marchiony says.
And the cleanup? Marchiony says the newspaper gets dry-mopped away, but that groups who volunteer to do the cleanup are tasked with picking up the thousands of pieces of torn newsprint.
THE WAVE NOVEMBER 20,2009
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN