One property owner in south central Kansas, after meeting with Kansas University Alumni Association staffers on a visit to the area, had a slightly unusual offer for the visitors.

He had land near a highway and wondered whether the KU Alumni Association would like to put a billboard on it.

So they did.

John T. and Linda Stewart of Wellington have provided financial support for other billboards, too.

It’s just another part of the Jayhawk goodwill that spread around this summer as the Alumni Association hosted 120 events around the state in 90 days.

That’s up from 100 events in the same time last year, and 80 events in 90 days the year before that.

“We just want to get out and develop relationships with alumni,” said Heath Peterson, assistant vice president of alumni and student programs. “Especially in areas far from Lawrence.”

Peterson spoke after just having hosted an event in Wellington, where members of the KU Alumni Association participated in a cow chip tossing contest.

Having participated in the event for several years, the four-man KU chip tossing squad managed a third-place finish this year, which Peterson said was pretty good.

They go to western Kansas, too, where KU probably isn’t the first institution on folks’ minds.

Just ask Erick Nordling of Hugoton, a past chapter president of the southwest Kansas KU alumni chapter, if there’s a lot of purple in his part of the state.

His reply comes quickly.

“You think?”

But the KU Alumni Association was in his neck of the woods, too, this year. They had a meet and greet in Hugoton and a southwest Kansas golf tournament as well.

“We are a state university, and even out here in the corners of the state, it’s a part of our area,” Nordling said.

It’s nice to give people a sense of what’s going on at KU outside of the latest news on the basketball team, he said.

The association didn’t stop at the borders of the state, either. They traveled across the country, hosting events in alumni hotspots such as Dallas, Phoenix and Chicago. They also went to places a little off the beaten path, including South Dakota as well as Los Angeles and New York.

Doug Glass, president of the New York chapter, graduated from KU in 1995 with a mathematics degree. Today, he lives in Brooklyn and works for IBM.

This year, the Alumni Association sponsored a boat cruise event in New York, Glass said. Those kinds of events can mean more than just a simple gathering of area alums to watch a football game at a bar.

“It keeps people involved with the university,” he said. “It gives alumni a sense of connection with the college.”

Those connections are meaningful, Peterson said.

They can help with student recruitment efforts, help boost alumni association membership and get volunteers to plan more events in areas later, gain legislative advocates in Kansas through the Jayhawks for Higher Education program and, yes, place more billboards.

The athletics association has taken most of the major arteries — along Interstates 35 and 70, Peterson said. The Alumni Association is working on some of the other state highways.

They’ve got 18 chapter billboards up so far, he said. Their goal is 50.

“It’s a ton of fun,” he said, of the summer packed with events. “It creates a lot of energy for KU that might not otherwise be there.”