Kansas University football fans are ready to go bowling.

Celebrating the Jayhawks’ 36-7 thrashing Saturday of Iowa State, fans were relishing thoughts of seeing their team in a postseason game for the first time since 1995.

“The excitement is building!” Kenny Ziegler yelled over a stereo blaring from a van outside Memorial Stadium.

Ziegler, of Topeka, said he hadn’t been to a KU football game for several years, but quickly added he’d be back next year for more. And he and friends Mark Hobart and Larry Lowrey wouldn’t mind going on the road to follow the Jayhawks to a bowl game.

“Every time I see them play they win,” said Lowrey, of Silver Lake, who attended three Jayhawk games this year. “I think (coach) Mark Mangino should take me everywhere he goes.”

KU is thought to be under consideration to play in the Tangerine Bowl on Dec. 22 in Orlando, Fla., or the Fort Worth Bowl on Dec. 23 in Fort Worth, Texas.

“You put up with a lot of years of frustration,” Hobart said of his years following KU football. “They’ve done really well this year.”

He’s hoping KU plays at Fort Worth because it would be easier to travel to, he said.

The last time KU played in a bowl game was the 1995 Aloha Bowl in Hawaii, when they beat UCLA, 51-30. They also went to the Aloha in 1992 and defeated Brigham Young, 23-20.

Big Jay goes crowd surfing in the student section after Kansas University's second touchdown against Iowa State. KU became bowl eligible with Saturday's 36-7 victory.

Odell Weidner, Topeka, has been there and done that. He was a linebacker with the Jayhawks when they played in the Liberty Bowl in 1971 and the Sun Bowl in 1975.

Weidner, who was in the stands Saturday, said he was “pleasantly surprised” at the Jayhawks’ quick turnaround under Mangino.

“He’s done a great job,” Weidner said. “The kids have worked really hard under him. We’re hopeful they will play in one of the bowls.”

Chris Mefford, Chanute, and Mike Santilli, a KU graduate student from Boston, agreed.

“I thought they’d be good, but not this good,” Mefford said.

“We could have had at least another couple of wins under our belts,” Santilli said, noting tough losses to Northwestern and Colorado.

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