Molly Hodson sat on her father's shoulders in the terminal at Forbes Field and held up a sign that said, "Who let the Hawks out?"
The 7-year-old carried one of many signs that were waving from a throng of about 500 cheering Jayhawks fans who showed up to greet Kansas University's men's basketball team as they returned Sunday evening from Dayton, Ohio, where earlier in the day they soundly defeated Syracuse, 87-58, in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Kansas University men's coach Roy williams holds up a stuffed monkey that his wife, Wanda Williams, bought Saturday in Dayton, Ohio. Williams let each player knock the monkey off his back during a team meeting before Sunday's game against the Syracuse Orangemen, hoping the Jayhawks would break a three-year streak of NCAA Tournament second-round losses. Sunday's win over the Orangemen sends the Jayhawks to San Antonio, Tex., where they'll face the University of Illinois Friday in the Sweet 16.
"I thought they played some of the best basketball I've seen today," said Molly's father, Chuck Hodson, a 1979 KU graduate from Topeka. "We hadn't been out here for a couple of years so we thought we'd welcome them tonight."
The KU players slowly made their way along a roped-off path through the terminal out to a waiting bus, signing autographs as they went. Members of the Topeka Jayhawk Club band, made up of KU graduates, played KU fight songs.
"It was one of the biggest crowds we've had for a while," said Otto Schnellbacher, president of the club and former KU football and basketball standout in the 1940s. The Topeka club has been organizing the Jayhawk welcomes at Forbes Field for the past several years.
Topeka was just the opening act. About 1,500 people were waiting at Allen Fieldhouse when Coach Roy Williams and company returned to the KU campus.
Among them were 17-year-olds Sarah Walters and Crystal Thrall. The two Ottawa girls wore sweatshirts proclaiming themselves to be fans of KU players Jeff Boschee and Nick Collison. Called out of the audience by KU public-address announcer Howard Hill, they got a chance to walk to center court and give their favorite players a hug.
"I was thrilled," a wide-eyed Crystal said afterward.
"I just wanted to touch Jeff Boschee," Sarah said.
The fans also got a chance to see Williams' now-famous stuffed monkey, which he pulled out of a bag he carried with him. It was the same monkey that he sent his wife out to buy Saturday in Dayton and the one his players took turns knocking off his back during a team meeting at the hotel.
Eric Chenowith speaks to the crowd during the welcome-home celebration Sunday night at Allen Fieldhouse. The Jayhawks advanced to the Sweet Sixteen round of the NCAA Tournament with an 87-58 win Sunday over Syracuse.
The monkey symbolized KU's and Williams' inability to get past the second round of the NCAA tournament the previous few years. The last time they got as far as the Sweet 16 was in 1997.
"I don't need any more monkeys," Williams said with a laugh.
KU's thrashing of the Orangemen and the fieldhouse festivities had fans optimistic about the Jayhawks' chances later in the week when they meet Illinois in San Antonio, Tex.
"If (Drew) Gooden, Collison and (Eric) Chenowith play like they did in Dayton they're going to do well," said Kent Noble, Eudora, who was among those watching the fieldhouse festivities.
Afterward, Eric Scott and his wife, Christie Scott, Topeka, took their daughters, Allison, 5, and Lauren, 2, down onto the court to have their pictures taken. The two girls were wearing blue dresses made to look like those of the KU cheerleaders.
"We missed the game but we wanted to come out here and show our support tonight," Eric Scott said.
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