Where the tailgating’s sure better than the team

Beau Holder: There's no way to sugarcoat the fact that the drive to Kansas is absolutely excruciating, but for the souls brave or redass enough to make the trip, it's worth it. Lawrence is a laid-back and pretty town; the people are friendly and for the true sports fan, you'll find yourself in the shadow of legendary Phog Allen Fieldhouse. It's definitely a basketball school though, which makes me really happy. The Ags won, too. So there's that.

Kyle Cunningham: My first encounter with a Kansas fan was a young woman driving by us in her car. "Texas sucks!" she yelled. Who would have thought I would enjoy the University of Kansas and the city of Lawrence, especially after a start like that? Turns out she was the exception, not the rule. Everyone else we encountered was very friendly or at least relaxed. I joked after mile 100 or so of Kansas Turnpike nothingness that "Lawrence is going to look like the Promised Land." Turns out that little bit of sarcasm wasn't too far off. I loved the town and enjoyed every second of it … except the "Texas sucks" part.

the Town

Lawrence is a great place and an excellent college town. It's more spread out than College Station and succeeds at providing a lot to do without being flashy or crowded. The hilly neighborhoods are beautiful and quiet and the downtown is historic and inviting. Massachusetts Street is Lawrence's version of Northgate, but about 10 times as long. It includes chains like Starbucks, Cold Stone and ... Spoons? We didn't know it existed outside of College Station. The one here was, for some reason, called "3 Spoons." Also featured are locally-owned stores and the Eldridge Hotel, which has quite a past if you're interested in looking it up. The most awesome thing we saw was this sculpture. It's called the Totemoticon, and it's really cool up close. If you look carefully, the second from the top describes us prior to the game. The bottom one looks like us after the game. Check out the top one to see our faces if we lose to Tech. Yeah, you're on notice, football team.

the Antique

There are positives: the press box was spacious and the food good, the concourses were wide and clean, the field-turf showed up well under the lights and the practice fields are top-notch. There are some problems. The never-ending one deck, off-blue paint job and track around the field were reminiscent of a higher-end high school stadium. Overall, while nothing was too special, the facilities are good and could be even better with upgrades. It's old — as in, 1921 — and it shows. Most funding goes to basketball at KU, but we're not complaining about that.

the Absentees

Even with a bad matchup, even with a bad team, you would expect the stands to be more than two-thirds full for a school's homecoming game. They weren't. We guess an exception is in order though, since the game wasn't at Allen Fieldhouse and the KU faithful probably had no idea the football program wasn't disbanded with Mark Mangino's termination. As harsh as that may seem, it got worse after halftime, when the fans whisked away to their tailgates. The stadium might have gotten loud once or twice.

the Tailgates

The majority of Jayhawk fans know how to tailgate. We discovered a few expertly done-up vehicles, including this former ambulance. Many tents were set up on the hills overlooking the stadium, which added a unique perspective to the greatest of sporting activities. There were no less than 15 games of bean-bag toss — the Noble Men Out of Kyle's favorite game — and a particularly friendly group took us in, fed us hamburgers, watched t.u. lose to Iowa State with us and explained the nature of the Kansas-Missouri rivalry. All that pales in comparison to the fact that they served bacon brownies. Yes. Short strips of bacon baked into brownies. Some middle-aged men talked with us for a while, allowing us to point out that one was wearing a College Game Day shirt from Feb. 3, 2007, when Acie Law led the Aggies to beat the Jayhawks. It led to a now-immortalized exchange in which he asked if KU actually lost that game and one of his buddies deadpanned, "It was the last game we lost in the Phog, dumb[expletive]." Maybe you had to be there.

the River Styx

That's what we've affectionately coined this drive. We headed to Stillwater, Okla., in seven hours on Friday and stayed overnight with the editor-in-chief of Oklahoma State University's Daily O'Collegian. Okie State Cowboys are, as always, great people. Saturday morning, we drove another five hours to Lawrence. No speeding tickets this time. Maybe the 12-hour drive would be easier if there were more to see after Stillwater … maybe. The majority of Kansas, as seen from the Kansas Turnpike, is flat and completely empty plains. It's a nice landscape, but completely devoid of human presence. Then there's the fact that the Turnpike expertly swindled us out of almost $10 just for making the mistake of driving into the state on it.

the Rock, Chalk

We'll sum up KU's pageantry thusly: Rock, Chalk. Jayhawk. Rock, Chalk. Jayhawk. Rock, Chalk. Jayhawk. It's cool when you think of the tradition that comes with it, and at basketball games, but after the 10th time we couldn't tell it apart from Texas Fight … or Raider Power … or Orange Power. The 10th time wasn't the last, either. You get the idea. "The Waving Song" didn't make a return, but KU does do the same waving part with their fight song as well. Overall, there was nothing too original, but it was still fun.

the Hills

The campus was by far the biggest plus on the trip through Lawrence. Lush green grass and trees covered the grounds, especially close to the stadium. The architecture was nice enough, if a bit varied, but the biggest plus for the KU campus was the hilly terrain — it seemed the only flat part of land was the football field. The new, upscale Oread Hotel was built on campus and resembles a castle. Phog Allen is a must-see. Rolling up over the first hill and seeing both spread out before us was "wow"-inducing. Were the uphill walks a bit of a pain? Yes, but the view and the weather in Lawrence made the climb well worth it.