To the editor:

Rock chalk Jayhawk.

Prior to the Kansas-Villanova basketball game Jan. 22, my husband and I thought we were New Jersey’s most loyal Jayhawk fans. But, it was only when the game ended and the Villanova fans stormed the court that we met our match.

We had left our seats to go cheer for the Jayhawks and wish them a safe trip back to Lawrence in the midst of a wintry blizzard when we saw a little boy no more than 12 years old. He was wearing a Giddens jersey and a KU baseball cap on his scraggly red hair and freckles. Standing next to his father, I asked them if they were from Lawrence. His father laughed and told us they were from North Jersey with no ties to Kansas but that his son had been a huge Jayhawk fan for the past five years! The little boy smiled and said he was going to go to college at KU and he even hoped to attend basketball camp in the summer.

I gladly went into recruitment mode and told them they couldn’t pick a better school than KU and that the folks in Lawrence are some of the nicest people they will ever meet. I regret not asking him his name; maybe in seven more years someone will be wearing his jersey.

Watching the Jayhawks play in person on that cold Saturday afternoon was a dream come true for all of us. The worst part wasn’t the loss to Villanova or driving back to New Jersey in 12 inches of blinding snow, but the homesickness one can only know after having the privilege of growing up in Lawrence.

Lori MacDonald,

Moorestown, N.J.