For those attending, awe overcomes heat

Former world leader holds court in KU fieldhouse

They loved Bob. They loved Bill.

For the 12,000 in attendance at Allen Fieldhouse, Friday’s inaugural Dole Lecture was a bipartisan lovefest.

After delivering the inaugural Dole Lecture, former President Bill Clinton greets some of his fans at Allen Fieldhouse.

“I think it’s admirable,” said KU student Tyler Longpine. “They don’t have to be friends like that.”

Just nine days earlier, it appeared most of those who wanted tickets to former President Bill Clinton’s lecture wouldn’t be allowed inside. The Dole Institute of Politics initially issued just 1,900 tickets for the event, which was to be at the Lied Center. But demand was so great officials decided to move it to the fieldhouse.

“It was a disaster two weeks ago,” said Sureva Towler, of Lawrence. “But everything came across perfectly, just like everything the Dole Institute has done.”

Towler praised Dole for giving people in Lawrence a chance to see a former world leader.

“I think Bob Dole ought to be credited for opening the world to Kansas,” Towler said. “That’s what this is about.”

One tradeoff of holding the event in the fieldhouse was the heat. The building isn’t air-conditioned, and temperatures inside hovered between 90 and 95 degrees during the speech.

Many of those in attendance were keeping cooler by using cardboard fans distributed by KU or fanning themselves with their lecture programs.

Nathan Bachert, a KU senior from Lawrence, tried to keep cool by sitting by an open window on the top row of the fieldhouse. He wasn’t convinced the plan was working.

“Heat rises,” he said. “It’s hot, but it’s not unbearable. I’m trying to stay hydrated.”

Mark Bradford, deputy chief with Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical, said crews treated only three people at the fieldhouse for heat-related illness. None were transported to the hospital.

“Everything went extremely well,” he said. “We expected a lot more with the heat. It got extremely hot inside Allen Fieldhouse.”

After the introductions, speech and question-and-answer session — the program lasted an hour and 20 minutes in all — Clinton shook hands and signed autographs for attendees in front of the stage.

Josh Hunt of Lawrence was one of the lucky ones to shake the former president’s hand.

“I barely got close enough,” he said. “It was pretty freaky. I’ve always been a huge fan.”

After his speech, former President Clinton shook hands with some of the people in the Allen Fieldhouse crowd.

Brian Thomas also was enjoying his moment near a celebrity. The KU student senator was among a group of students who landed front-row seats.

“When he was looking down, scanning the crowd, I realized he was looking at me,” Thomas said. “At one point, he pointed at me during the speech.”

Rachel Keller, a student at Central Junior High School, said she was looking forward to telling people about the speech for the rest of her life.

“When you talk to people, they’ve got stories like ‘I met the president’ or ‘I heard the president,'” she said. “Now I have a story, too.”