Homolka bucks upbringing

Cullen Homolka played football at Claflin High, where the school colors are purple and white and the official emblem is the Powercat.

Just like at Kansas State.

“It’s basically Wildcat country,” said Homolka, a 5-foot-10, 225-pound native of Holyrood, who led Claflin to 51 straight victories, three state titles and one state runner-up finish from 1997 to 2000.

He bucked a trend by surfacing at Kansas University instead of Kansas State – the favorite school of most of the purples – make that the people – in central Kansas.

“I always thought, ‘I’ve got to be different,” Homolka said. “My aunt went to KU. Some cousins went to KU (as well as brother, Josh). I’ve always been a KU fan.”

Rooting for KU in football hasn’t always been easy for Homolka, who suffered during the Jayhawks’ 11-game losing streak to Bill Snyder’s Wildcats – a streak that ended last year at KU’s Memorial Stadium.

“Growing up, I had to hear from all the kids like, ‘Oh, K-State is going to kill ’em again this year,”’ Homolka said. “I’d say, ‘Gosh, we’ve got a chance.’ Every year I’d be heartbroken again.”

Last year’s pulsating 31-28 KU victory gave Homolka temporary bragging rights.

A win this year would be monumental considering KU hasn’t won in Manhattan since 1989.

“It made it easier back home,” Homolka said of the KU win. “I think it gave the state a lot more to look forward to. It made a lot of people acknowledge the fact we can still play football, too.

“We showed everybody KU football is back on the rise and there’s more than one team in the state.”

Homolka said the victory definitely pumped up KU’s football program, now in its fourth year under former KSU assistant Mark Mangino.

“The feeling after that game was you could feel the energy in the stadium. Everybody was so excited. It was an unbelievable feeling,” said Homolka, a player KU special teams coach Clint Bowen refers to as a “bulldozer” on the kickoff return team.

“We surprised a lot of people who expected us to get stomped again. I want that feeling back,” he added. “It’s something you can’t get unless you do something like that. We’ll work our butts off this week so we can have the chance to do that again.”

Homolka realizes it won’t be easy during Saturday’s KU-KSU game, set for 11 a.m. at KSU Stadium/Wagner Field.

“I’ve been to a lot of games there, seven or eight games,” Homolka said. “Their crowd loves the Wildcats. They’ll do anything they can to distract us and make sure their offense clicks.”

Homolka grinned when asked why a KU fan like himself would attend so many games in Manhattan as a youth.

“A lot of my friends had season tickets,” he said. “On Saturdays back home, growing up on a farm as a kid, if you get a chance to go, you go.

“When I was growing up, I thought the only team was Fort Hays (State). They’re good, but I later found out there were some other schools that played, too.”

There are bigger players than Homolka, of course, but none with bigger hearts, KU’s Bowen indicated.

“He’s a tough guy who only cares about the team,” Bowen said. “He’s everything you want in a football player.”

He hasn’t played much at KU after toiling two years at Garden City Community College, but utters no complaints.

“I’m happy I get to play on special teams. It’s a big deal to me,” Homolka said. “I came in here with nothing on my plate. I’m excited to be part of it, involved.”

The secondary education major is too smart a guy to say anything to inflame KSU’s players, coaches or fans the week of the Sunflower Showdown.

“We’ll both come out and fight hard,” he said when asked for a prediction. “We’ll see who wants it more.”