Once upon a time, long before he mixed fruity concoctions or danced on bars or poured towering glasses of shots, Dave played basketball. His long, winding road through the land of college basketball eventually brought him to Lawrence and the Kansas Jayhawks.
(If you missed the fantastic story this fall about his path from backboards to surfboards, you can find it here.)
Anyway.
The KU-KSU Sunflower Showdown is always a heated rivalry, and Dave's playing years were no exception.
When his team traveled west to beat down the purple kitty-cats one year, Dave came home with more than a win. I've heard that Greg Gurley was talking about this on the radio yesterday, and it's been mentioned on the KUsports.com message boards, but I'm the only one with the exclusive story from Dave himself!
"I can't remember if it was '91 or '92, but I think it was my junior year ('91). We won the game, and afterwards the students started throwing crap at the court. I got hit on the forehead with something- to this day I don't know what it was. Maybe a quarter, a piece of ice…who knows.
Anyway, my forehead had a bleeding gash on it, and Coach Williams actually told the trainer not to fix it up right away. He wanted the media and everyone else to see the blood on my face so they wouldn't minimize the whole incident.
Of course the trainer fixed it before too long, but at least there were a few pictures of it, to prove I really did get hit. There's still a small scar on my forehead from it.
I think someone else, maybe Rex Walters, got hit with something the next year."
This picture was taken shortly after the game before Dave's head was fixed. Doesn't he look young? (And skinny?!?)
The adorable little girl? His cousin Mariya, who has since graduated from KSU, is working on her master's degree and teaching, and recently got married. That makes Dave (and me) feel really old.
The KSU fans are still throwing things from the stands. Recently, their projectile of choice has been rubber chickens, which is particularly amusing to us at the Sandbar. If you've seen our hurricane videos, you know that rubber chickens play a prominent part.
Let's hope that everyone can stay classy today and that no one gets hurt.
If you're looking for a place to watch the game, we're giving away free chili dogs at both Sandbar Lawrence & Ottawa locations during the game. We may not have big-screen TV's, but our chili dogs can't be beat!
Rock Chalk Jayhawk!
I think I’m the one that threw that item. For the record, it was a pipe wrench.
Except that this pic is from the 1991 holiday classic at kemper arena and not in manhattan. They didn’t even play ksu in that tourney. They played Southern miss and temple. Unless you guys hung out at bramlage after he game wearing tshirts from a different tourney. Thanks Brian Williams.
I have been to many games and never see the road team just hanging around on the court after a win. This was not bramlage.
Maybe that bump makes you misremember.
Nope, sorry. The picture is from the game in Manhattan, when he visited with his family members, including his cousin in the picture, after the game. Wearing a shirt from a different game doesn’t mean anything—it’s just the shirt he happened to put on after the game. Pretty sure Dave remembers where an incident like this happened… and equally sure that you were probably not there.
Very funny. Thanks for reading!
You guys know I’m an avid K-Stater, but I’ve never been proud of that sort of thing… I feel even worse now that I know my ole buddy Dave was the target… 🙁 boo. You have to admit, though, it’s nice to have both Kansas and K-State leading the Big Twelve and ranked nationally- This state is awesome! 🙂
Of course, it’s great that K-State finally has a great program! We happily cheer for them if they aren’t playing us.
I’m sure we have fans who have done crappy things to other teams too…but yeah, poor Dave getting beaned on the head!