Fort Worth Bowl beckons Jayhawk fans

Whether it’s in the air, down Interstate 35 or on ESPN, Kansas University football fans certainly have options as to how to see their Jayhawks one more time this season.

KU formally accepted an invitation to play Houston in the Fort Worth Bowl at 7 p.m. on Dec. 23. With the announcement – which came Sunday, 19 days before kickoff – comes the expected scrambling for arrangements by some supporters to get to Texas for the game.

“We’re going to play at a place that our fans can get to very easily,” KU coach Mark Mangino said. “What we want to do is establish ourselves as a football program that travels well to bowl games. We know that our loyal fans will be there.”

Dave Clark is one of those fans planning on showing up at Amon G. Carter Stadium for the game. It’s a little easier for him, though – he’s a current student originally from Fort Worth, and he intended to be home during that time for winter break, anyway.

The chance to watch his Jayhawks while visiting family is a script Clark couldn’t have written any better, and he’s going to spread the convenience to his college buddies, too.

“It’s like a 10-minute drive from my house,” Clark said. “I’m bringing a bunch of friends from here, and we’re all going to stay at my house and go the game.”

For those who don’t have it so easy, Southwest Airlines and American Airlines have several flights daily between Kansas City and Dallas-Fort Worth. Southwest recently began offering nonstop service between Kansas City International and Love Field in Dallas after President Bush signed a bill lifting a restriction on nonstop flights from Missouri to Love Field. Pre-Christmas flights were running as low as $158 through Southwest.

Regardless of the air options, though, Fort Worth Bowl executive director Tom Starr expects a large chunk of KU fans to make the road trip down I-35.

The journey goes straight through Oklahoma to the metroplex, is about 500 miles long and takes about eight hours.

“It’s an easy drive,” Starr said. “I drove it myself a couple of weeks ago.”

Fans looking for a place to stay should have plenty of hotel options. In all, Fort Worth has 11,000 hotel rooms citywide, including 2,000 in downtown, according to fortworth.com. The Jayhawks’ team hotel will be the Renaissance Worthington in downtown Fort Worth.

As for the game, tickets are available for $40 through the KU ticket office, which can be reached by calling 800-34-HAWKS. The Fort Worth Bowl Web site (www.fwbowl.com) also offers individual tickets along with a “Family Pack” for $60, which includes two adult tickets and two tickets for children.

Associate athletic director Larry Keating added that he expected KU to set up some sort of deal for students to get discounted tickets if they make the trip, as it did for the Tangerine Bowl in 2003.

Kansas is committed to selling 10,000 tickets, standard among most bowls of similar size. Keating said he expected a large contingency of fans at the game both for Kansas and Houston, a Conference-USA program that finished the regular season 6-5.

“We’ll have more people there than we’ll actually count with tickets,” Keating said. “There are so many alums in the Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin and even Houston areas. A lot of those people will go ahead and get their tickets (through the Fort Worth Bowl).

“I’d be surprised,” Keating added, “if we didn’t have a good crowd.”