If words are windows to the soul, this blog has become a massive vista onto my sports obsessions and, specifically, Kansas basketball. Soon enough it'll all be over, the fever dream will end, the sun will rise, and I'll be back to the old stuff. Until then, I want to post one more thing, to commemorate the Jayhawks' run to San Antonio.
I designed a t‑shirt that expressed my feelings with regard to the Heels, which — in a really weird coincidence — echo Ol Roy's sentiments c. 2003.
For many Kansas fans, Roy's angry words ring true — truer, even — today. Sure, Roy may have claimed to have "given a shit" at that moment, but he changed his tune a week later. Jayhawk fans probably still couldn't give a shit, to say the least. Now, we can declare this to the world. [Buy it now now now from Zazzle].
A day that will live in infamy
In case anyone's wondering what the heck the shirt is all about, let's take a quick trip down YouTube lane. The year was 2003; the time was 10 minutes after KU's national final loss to Syracuse; the place was the tunnel outside the Kansas locker room The "shit" part clearly wasn't pre-meditated, yet it was perfectly timed, putting a bitter exclamation point on a ringing rebuke. Of course, the most shocking part of it all was that it came from the man who had — to that point — cornered the market in "dadgums" and "doggones:" Ol Roy, the kind country cousin of college basketball. In more ways than one, that interview was the end of an era, and in retrospect, Roy's aw-shucks-ing and dadgum-ing seems a little silly, but it sure worked well for a while. Now, well. Times have changed.