100 Things Kansas Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die by Davis Ken;Self Bill;

Author:Davis, Ken;Self, Bill;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781623682958
Publisher: Triumph Books
Published: 2013-09-13T00:00:00+00:00

46. Camp Out for Tickets

Freshmen make mistakes befitting their youth. It’s a fact of basketball life. But this certainty isn’t just reserved for the players on the court. Consider the case of this rookie camper at the University of Kansas.

Maggie Hirschi, a 2012 senior from St. Louis, Missouri, learned a difficult lesson during her freshman year, according to The University Daily Kansan. Hirschi overslept her camping shift. She woke up at 5:55 am for her 6 am shift at Allen Fieldhouse before a game against Texas. But that was cutting it too close. Hirschi bolted into action, rushed from her Oliver Hall dorm room, but was told she was too late upon arrival. She lost her group’s No. 3 camping spot.

Take heart, Maggie, you aren’t alone. It has happened before. It will happen again. The fine art of waiting in line for the best seats at Allen Fieldhouse requires practice, experience, and dedication.

Give the campers credit. They are the ones who bring Allen Fieldhouse alive on gameday. They bring the signs, the props, the cheers, the costumes, and the enthusiasm. They are the ones who generate the earsplitting noise that raises the decibel level from November to March.

Campers showed up from time to time during the 1970s when Ted Owens was coach. But the arrival of Danny Manning and coach Larry Brown in the mid-1980s generated bigger crowds, more excitement, and an increased interest in camping for the best seats. The KU athletic department makes it clear that students don’t have to be part of a camping group to get seats. But students who desire a better seat location can form a camping group and then must follow the rules of camping.

There are basic rules. Camping begins at Allen Fieldhouse at 6 am the morning following the previous home game. Each group may have a maximum of 30 members. A list of groups in order is posted on a door, and new groups sign up at the bottom as they arrive. Camping takes place from 6 am until 10 pm on weekdays and 8 am to 10 pm on weekends. That schedule has solved many of the problems and concerns that came with allowing all-night camping outside the Fieldhouse. A mandatory roll call requires that each group has a representative present at those times. There are random roll calls throughout the day. And at the final roll call, each group receives its final standing for entry.

Bigger games obviously trigger bigger crowds—and an earlier arrival of campers. The north concourse of Allen Fieldhouse becomes its own tent city—without the tents that existed when campers were kept outside the building. Clusters of students can be found hanging out in sleeping bags, on air mattresses or lawn chairs. Pillows and blankets are regular accessories. Some students sleep, while others study—or at least try to. Books, laptops, iPhones, iPods, and any other portable entertainment sources are typical. “There were times when it gave the appearance of a crowded homeless shelter,” a longtime athletic department employee said in Beware of the Phog.

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