LJWorld.com

Overland Park — The Kansas University football team may want to invest in keeping Gordon Alloway in school as long as it can.

Alloway was an undergraduate at KU the last time the Jayhawks went to the Orange Bowl. He returned recently to pursue a master's degree in journalism. In 1969, Alloway was part of the Marching Jayhawks and made the trek to Miami to play at the game.

And now, 39 years later, not only is Gordon Alloway back at KU, but his son, Stewart, also is an enrolled Jayhawk. And though Gordon won't be playing with the Marching Jayhawks this time around, his son will be.

"I always expected when we went to the Orange Bowl, that there would be a lot more bowls after that," Gordon said. "I looked at that trip as the height of what you could accomplish as a marching band."

For some band members, Gordon said, the best part of the trip was the chance to get out of Kansas - and to see the ocean. Many members of what was then an all-male group had never before seen a beach.

But even more than that, Gordon said, the band had seats just feet from the field. Everyone felt as if they were part of the game, Gordon said.

"We were close enough to the field that when KU won, we all ran on the field. Then there was that penalty, and Penn State won," he said. "I really feel like I got to experience both winning and losing an Orange Bowl."

When Gordon walked off the bus back from Miami, he packed up his saxophone case, never to open it again until his son first expressed interest in music.

Stewart, a music education major, is only a freshman this year but he said he has followed the Jayhawks ever since his family moved from Virginia to suburban St. Louis.

He said the success of the football program seems to have changed the attitude of the band as well.

"The atmosphere is a lot different because we're able to keep performing," said Stewart, who plays French horn and mellophone. "We don't know what to expect."

Still, Stewart said that while band director David Clemmer sent all of the members an itinerary for their stay in Florida, he's unsure of how the trip will really unfold.

"I don't think I'm going to realize what all we saw until we're on the airplane flying back," he said. "We only have two free times the whole time we're down there."

The band arrives in Miami on Tuesday - New Year's Day - and flies out Friday, the day after the game.

Stewart said that being able to do something his dad also did fits right in with the emphasis on tradition the band has. As an example of that tradition, both Gordon and Stewart learned essentially the same pregame show, they said.

Nonetheless, Stewart couldn't say if this shared experience has changed the relationship between him and his father. One thing is certain, though; they're certainly talking about the games a lot.

"I really don't think I'll know until I come back from the trip," Stewart said. "He's had his experiences and I still have to have mine."