Jayhawk faithful in Florida to cheer on team

Kathryn-Rose got an A on the sonnet she wrote for class, commemorating her brother Gabe’s trip to the Tangerine Bowl.

But that doesn’t mean her teachers in Southlake, Texas, really liked the poem.

“My teachers are all Texas fans and stuff,” she said. “They didn’t think much of it.”

Kathryn-Rose, 11, is a sixth-grader who claims to be the No. 1 fan for Gabe Toomey, who wears No. 1 on the football field.

Kathryn-Rose said she’s looking forward to watching the bowl game and going to Disney World.

But she’s really looking forward to spending Christmas with her big brother, who she said taught her to break dance.

“He’s probably the best big brother anyone could have,” she said.

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The Tangerine Bowl holds a special place in Lawrence resident Kitty Hagen’s heart.

Hagen’s father, Orlando businessman Grady Cooksey, served on the first Tangerine Bowl board of directors in 1958. Hagen attended the first game, which was held at a high school stadium.

At J.B.'s Sports Bar & Grill in Orlando, Fla., Kansas University Chancellor Robert Hemenway, left, Dana Anderson and athletic director Lew Perkins chat. The trio were among the hundreds of KU fans gathered on Saturday to watch the KU men's basketball game at the bar. All plan to attend the Tangerine Bowl on Monday in which KU plays North Carolina State.

“He stood there, looked up and down the stadium, and said, ‘One of these days, this is going to be an important bowl game,'” Hagen recalled of her father. “Everyone kind of laughed at him.”

That version of the Tangerine Bowl — which was funded by the Elks Club — later folded.

The current Tangerine Bowl started again in 1990, but it was called the Blockbuster Bowl, the Carquest Bowl, the MicronPC Bowl and the MicronPC.com Bowl before being renamed the Tangerine Bowl in 2001.

A KU connection actually helped lead to the first Tangerine Bowl match-up. When Cooksey’s son-in-law, Bob Hagen, played for KU from 1939 to 1941, Cooksey met KU coach J.V. Sykes.

Sykes left KU in 1953 to coach at East Texas State University, which Cooksey invited to play in Orlando in 1958.

Hagen, 80, will be rooting for the Jayhawks on Monday while watching the game on TV. But above all, she’ll be rooting for a Tangerine Bowl filled with crimson and blue.

“I’m hoping (Florida alumni) will show up,” she said. “I’m just hoping they’re sports enthusiasts.”

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Angela Lumpkin hopes the Jayhawks come through for her Monday so she can avoid some ribbing from her friends in Raleigh, N.C.

Lumpkin, dean of KU’s school of education, was a professor of physical education at North Carolina State from 1988 to 1996.

“I have lots of close friends there,” she said.

Lumpkin said she frequently attended NCSU football games while in North Carolina. But don’t expect her to don any Wolfpack gear while she watches the game on TV in Lawrence.

“I don’t have any mixed loyalties,” she said. “Go KU.”

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How about the Clementine Bowl?

When it comes to lesser-known citrus fruits, Bob McCann, assistant manager at Hy-Vee, 4000 W. Sixth St., prefers the clementine to its cousin, the tangerine. Clementines are sweeter, he said.

McCann said his store sold a few more 3-pound bags of tangerines in the days leading up to the KU-Iowa State home game, because some fans chose to throw the orange projectiles onto the field to celebrate the victory.

But there hasn’t been a boom in the Lawrence tangerine industry since then.

“We’re not expecting a big rush,” he said.

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It’s been 21 years since John Kessel graduated from KU and joined the English department faculty at NCSU. But he swears he’s still a rabid Jayhawk basketball fan.

Football is another story.

“In terms of football, I’d have to say I’d rather see NC-State beat Kansas,” he said. “I hope you guys will forgive me.”

Kessel received his doctorate at KU in 1981. He said many of his colleagues in North Carolina have been ridiculing the stature of the Jayhawk football program in recent weeks, and Kessel admits he was never a big KU football fan while in Lawrence.

“I went to a few football games, but it’s hard” to be a fan, he said. “You know how it is. But they had a couple of good teams during those years.”