Jayhawk football fans bask in Tangerine Bowl hype
Orlando, Fla. ? After an eight-year drought, Jayhawk football fans on Sunday finally got a taste of the atmosphere surrounding a bowl game.
Several hundred Kansas University fans gathered Sunday night in downtown Orlando for the Tangerine Jam, a joint pep rally with opponent North Carolina State followers that served as the fan kickoff for today’s Tangerine Bowl.
The music blared. The beer flowed. And Jayhawk pride soared.
“It incites your school spirit because you have the opposing school’s fans right there,” said Cole Gray, a KU senior from Atchison, Kan. “We’re getting excited. We’re looking forward to getting to the game.”
Organizers said about 600 people attended the rally. N.C. State fans outnumbered KU fans 2-to-1 early on, though more KU fans stayed toward the end of the event.
Much of the rally pitted opposing fans against each other in chanting, trivia and tangerine juice-drinking contests.
“This has been really exciting,” said Alyssa Hill, a Lawrence, Kan., senior and member of the dance team. “We feel like (athletic director) Lew Perkins is really supporting us, having all the Spirit Squad, the band and the flag team here.”
It was the band that stole the show Sunday afternoon in a performance at Walt Disney World.
The KU band — including the Spirit Squad, Big Jay and Baby Jay mascots — was featured marching down Main Street USA, the principal drag at the Magic Kingdom park. It played a march version of “Good King Wenceslas” for the thousands of tourists who lined the street.
The band opened for the main attraction, Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Parade.
“It was a blast, a lot of fun,” said Daniel Meyers, a freshman trombone player from Lawrence, Kan. “I never expected for my freshman year to go to a bowl game. It’s definitely one of the best parts about being in band.”
The band was a hit with at least two KU grads in the audience.
Amie Gorrell and Shelly Peterson were racing around the Magic Kingdom, ducking in and out of buildings to see as much as they could of the band.
It’s not every day their alma mater’s band plays at their “office” — the 30,000-acre Disney theme park.