Kansas University students, staff and faculty wait in line Tuesday morning for tickets to see President Obama speak at KU. The president will speak Thursday, Jan. 22, 2015, at Anschutz Sports Pavilion.

For admission to what several described as a once-in-a-lifetime experience, thousands of Kansas University students got up early and stood in line a long time.

“He’s the president,” said law student Brian Vanorsby, who arrived at 4 a.m. and was second in line. “I can say I was in the same room as him — a big room, but the same nonetheless.”

Free-but-limited tickets to President Barack Obama’s speech at KU, set for Thursday morning at Anschutz Sports Pavilion, were made available starting at 9 a.m. Tuesday for KU students, faculty and staff. The campus allotment of tickets ran out shortly after 12:30 p.m.

Before the doors to the SUA Box Office at the Memorial Union even opened, the line of people behind Vanorsby stretched nearly half a mile, along Jayhawk Boulevard and down Mississippi Street to the Spencer Museum of Art entrance.

KU Medical School student Naya Owusu was in line early, too, to ensure she got her ticket.

“This’ll probably be my first and last time I’ll get to see the president and hear him speak,” Owusu said. “Obviously it’s one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities.”

People were in line there before 8 a.m., with the line growing throughout the day.

Tickets for members of the public weren’t scheduled to become available until 5 p.m. at the Douglas County Fairgrounds, but 100-year-old Fern Coffin had been waiting in line there with her daughter and granddaughter since 10 a.m.

Hundreds stood, shivering, in a line that snaked around buildings and south along a gravel road. Coffin sat on her walker near the front, scarf wrapped tightly around her neck, surrounded by her new friends.

“I’m crazy about Obama,” she said. “I’m holding up well, and I’m being supported by all sorts of people.”

“She’s always been a big Obama fan,” said Coffin’s granddaughter, Jessica Mitchell. “She would do anything for him. She would wait in line for a week if it were required.”

Coffin said she doesn’t have any expectations for Obama’s speech Thursday, she’s just happy to have the opportunity to see the president.

“I just want to see him,” she said as the line began to lurch forward.

“He could just stand there and she’d be quite happy,” Coffin’s daughter Kathy Fordyce said with a laugh.

One of Coffin’s new friends, Mary Martin, also arrived at the fairgrounds at 10 a.m., commuting from Kansas City, Mo. Unlike Coffin, however, Martin said she specifically hopes Obama addresses prominent issues such as health care and gun control.

“Especially since we’re in a state that isn’t conducive to Democrats,” she said.

Standing in line for over seven hours was no easy task, Martin said, and tensions ran high at times. But for the most part the masses all got along, she said, because they were all waiting in line with the same goal: a chance to see the president.

“It’s so inspirational. I don’t know them,” she said, pointing at the crowd. “They’re from all over, and we’re all getting along.”

There will be no chairs for Obama’s speech in Anschutz Sports Pavilion, according to KU. Attendees will stand, likely on the facility’s 80-yard turf football field.

The White House is not saying exactly how many tickets will be made available, only indicating there will be “several thousand,” with some reserved for KU students and the public so that both groups will be represented.

At the Kansas Union, there were still hundreds in line by 10 a.m., when tickets still were being doled out.

JJ O’Toole-Curran, director of the union programs office, said the process had gone smoothly and resulted in a lot of happy students and staff.

“They seem really excited,” she said. “A lot of people, when they walk out, they go, ‘I’ve got the golden ticket!'”

LJWorld.com blog: POTUS at KU

For more from Tuesday’s ticket lines, including photos, videos and tweets, check out “POTUS at KU” blog.