My first impressions of good basketball was Roy William’s fast-breaking Jayhawks. Since, KU football wasn’t quality when I was growing up, my first impression of good winning football was Martyball with the Chiefs. Watching the Chiefs in the 90’s gave me the impression that good football consisted of a hard-nosed and punishing defense supported by a strong running game. That is the description of the 2005 Jayhawks to a T.

In 2005 you still couldn’t see all the football games on TV. So, I was left hearing descriptions of how the team was playing on the radio. I don’t think I have ever heard more hyperbole used in describing a defensive unit. Specifically, I remember listening to 810 over and over again when Lynn Dickey did some commentary for them. I know he is a K-State guy, but he always had high praise for that KU defense. He provided what has always stuck out to me as the perfect metaphor for the team. He said that KU played with the hard intensity of a snapping turtle. Once they got a hold of you there was nothing left to do but shoot them in the head because they weren’t going to quit or let you go.

That year we also had one of the most disappointing losses I’ve experienced when we lost to Texas. Young converted a 4 and 19 to set up the winning score for Texas late in the fourth quarter. This was another game I heard on the radio. That game is of course memorable for the phantom pass interference call against KU and the subsequent press conference by Mangino. That press conference with Mangino’s calling out of the refs and his “Dollar Signs” quote took my love of Mangino to a knew level. Wonderfully enough, the whole season ended with a desperate winning streak and a bowl victory. All in all, it was the season for me that made me love the new Jayhawks.

the team that finally beat Nebraska of at home. Watching Kevin Kane do the pick 6 to really ice the game was awesome and to walk on the field after to take pictures and soak it in. The QB situation was in dire straits until Jason Swanson finally stepped up the latter part of the season. The defense was awesome with Charlton Keith on the coner pass rush. Combine that defense with the 08 offense and one can dream of what we could have done on a national stage.

I remember standing in the basement of my brother’s house in Fredericksburg, Virginia in the winter of 2005. My family had gathered to celebrate Christmas and the day before Christmas Eve I was in front of the television watching Kansas destroy Houston.

It was the first time I ever saw Mangino on television. I kept thinking to myself, ‘Really? That’s physiologically impossible.’ For those of you who have read my story from yesterday, you know that I followed KU basketball a little sooner than I did football. However, a 42-13 final score and 538 yards of total offense was a wonderful introduction to the football Jayhawks.

As a side note, I never truly had a collegiate football program to follow. Again, I grew up in New York and the nearest D1 program was Army. The day Army becomes relevant again in football, I will be quite ecstatic… but I didn’t really expect that to ever happen, so my fandom was open for courting.

After seeing the Jayhawks that night, in addition to the growing affinity for KU on the part of my fiancee, I was well on my way to becoming a Jayhawk football fan.

Fast forward two years and my wife and I are living in Massachusetts. Living in Boston, we didn’t get the chance to see KU play anything other than basketball. The first game we got a chance to see that year was the drubbing of Nebraska… An entirely enjoyable game to watch. Tood Reesing was quickly becoming my favorite collegiate football player ever.

Later that fall, my wife and I were in Maryland visiting my parents for Thanksgiving. We glued ourselves to the television to witness the most disappointing ending of all time. A great game, but just a little bit unfortunate for us Jayhawk fans.

We get back to Massachusetts and decide to go to a TGI Friday’s for the Orange Bowl. Unfortunately, it was a horrible atmosphere. Nobody cared about the game (the Bruins were on all but one television)… So we quickly ate and dashed home by the end of the first quarter. My wife and I were fervently watching the television as Mangino and the Jayhawks beat Beamer at his own game. A punt return touchdown and an interception for a touchdown…

Jubilation was the sentiment of choice for a long, long time thereafter.

I now own three football jerseys. An Aqib Talib ‘3’, a Todd Reesing ‘5’, and an Eli Manning ‘10’. (I bought the Manning jersey just to rub it in all the Patriots fans faces the day after the SuperBowl that year)

Anyway… needless to say, the 2005 Jayhawks introduced me and the 2007 Jayhawks seduced me…. and my collegiate football allegiance is now listed on Facebook as ‘married.’

The Aloha Bowl is on tape and I still love watching it, tho it is unfortunately the only game I got to see. Definitely a fun team to watch, and maybe a bit like the next year or so of KU FB.

That was a great season for KU football and it will be extremely hard to equal that or surpass it. There is a but to my post though. I haven’t been around as long as some people but I’d wanna go old school if I could relive games. Any game at Memorial Stadium between 59-65. I would love to go back and see those games and see the 2 greatest players ever to play at KU. If anyone was luckily to see either John Hadl or Gale Sayers play, I’d say your a luck Jayhawk.

95 wasn’t Mason’s last season. It was going to be until he backed out of the Georgia job the day of the Aloha Bowl to remain at KU for what turned out to be one more disappointing season in 96.

Back on subject, I gotta go with 2007 but 1995 has a special place in my heart too. Lots of solid players on that team. Isaac Byrd and little Ashaundai Smith at WR (remember his amazing catch against Howard Schnellenberger’s OU Sooners?), a fantastic RB corps with Henley, Levine and Eric Vann, Keith Rodgers at LB (high school QB turned college LB ala Nick Reid), Dorian Brew at CB, and Rod Jones at o-line.

If I recall correctly, 1995 was back when lots of college players wore cut-off jerseys (i.e. their jersey’s didn’t go down much past their shoulder pads – leaving the belly exposed). Never much cared for that look.

I was on that team, what a great year. Mason really got us confused with ‘stayin-goin’ stuff.

Growing up, I was much more interested in playing sports than watching them, but I remember the 1975 team and how excited a lot people started getting as we started winning. We started off with a close loss to Washington State, but then went to Kentucky and won and at home against Oregon State and won(I was at this game), and up to Wisconsin and won. We went to Nebraska with high hopes but lost by 16 in an ugly grind it out game that I recall hearing on the radio, although I did lose interest as we couldn’t score and it was just a run fest of 1,2, 3, or maybe 4 yard runs. We then went on down to Oklahoma and handed them their asses in 23-3 win. They were ranked #2 at the time and had won 28 in a row before that game, so this wasn’t like our wins in the 1990’s against them when they were in a down period. We beat KSU and MU and went on the Sun Bowl, but lost to Pittsburgh. Of course, Nolan Cromwell was a big part of all of this and I think that’s the year he set a NCAA record for rushing by a QB. Man could that guy turn the corner and get up field! My pops was glued to the radio or getting everyone up early on Saturdays to make the trips up to Lawrence for the games that year and me and my brothers hated it until we got to the games. This season was the first I really remember getting excited about KU football, even though I had been to games before. I was mostly too young though to get too involved at that time and even at that time I was still really young.

Then you’ve got the 1980’s that didn’t really produce much good football, but had some talented players mixed in and for a while the team had a real chip on their shoulders. Kind of like the college football version of the Bad News Bears(the old original one, not that crappy remake! lol). Willie Pless, the human tackling machine who would go on to fame and glory in the Canadian league setting all sorts of records along the way. Will Vaughn, probably the fastest guy I’ve ever seen in a KU football uniform. He smoked me in a couple of races, so I should know! ha When he caught that long pass against Nebraska, where he just ran a go route and NOBODY in the Nebraska D could even come close to staying with him for something like a 95 yard TD and then did the same thing against Colorado(this is when Colorado was playing their best football ever too!), man was that awesome. Too bad we didn’t have a QB who could throw the damned ball though, or we would of won a few more games and Willie would of had twice as many TD’s.

The 1991 season when Tuxedo Tony set the NCAA rushing record in a game at the time against hated Missouri no less. The 1992 season was awesome and gave us all a glimpse of what KU football could be and the 1995 season. The 1995 season really got the excitement going and I started seeing people who never cared much about KU football before getting into it. Later that year I was living abroad toying around with my short wave radio trying to get our Aloha Bowl game broadcast, when my African neighbor(also living abroad) came knocking on my door screaming something. I thought the building was on fire and we had seconds to get out or something, but it turns out from living next to me and hearing me talk about KU all the time he kind of developed an interest in KU and he had satellite TV and found the KU game on. He was so excited to get me over so I wouldn’t miss the kick off. Man, is that a great memory and KU’s got a doctor KU fan in West Africa who’s never been to Lawrence (yet, he says he’ll do it before he dies!) by the way.

But all of those memories and teams just don’t quite match up to the magic of 2007-08. Being down at the first Orange Bowl win in school history and losing my voice. Not to mention what has to be about the coldest OB ever! The 1st 12 win season in school history. All the records set on offense and all the talented players. The smart tough nosed great defense full of players who just played smart and didn’t miss tackles. It’s been really really fun watching Reesing and the gang. Even the old time KU fans in my family, who’ve been at games off and on since the 1940’s think the ‘07 team is right up there with the best they’ve ever seen at KU. My uncle though goes with the 1968 team with Riggins, Bobby Douglas, and John Zook and the rest of the crew leading us to a heart breaking 1 point loss in the Orange Bowl(I’ve heard this story so much, I almost feel like I was there!) and within 5 points of having an undefeated season. He goes with the 1961 team with the great John Hadl and Curtis McClinton leading the way to KU’s first bowl victory ever(my uncle was there), and all the excitement Jack Mitchell had generated about KU football at the time, and 2007 teams as a tie.