President Barack Obama gives remarks on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2015 at Anschutz Pavilion on the campus of Kansas University in Lawrence, Kan. President Obama visited Lawrence to outline some of his themes delivered during his State of the Union address on Tuesday, Jan. 20.

When Barack Obama spoke at Kansas University on Jan. 22, he became the first sitting U.S. president to visit KU in 103 years. The last was William Howard Taft in 1911.

Over and over, KU students and community members called attending Obama’s speech a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Pulling it off was a massive effort by the university.

“President Obama’s visit was as big of an undertaking as there is,” said Charlie Persinger, director of university ceremonies and special events. “Essentially, we had to pause nearly all of our everyday operations and, in less than a week, plan an event that would normally take weeks or months to organize.”

The Secret Service kept security tight and the White House kept most planned details of Obama’s visit secret. Surprises included a brief visit with the KU basketball team just prior to his speech — although someone had enough notice to make sure the president was presented an official KU basketball jersey with No. 1 and his name on it.

Obama warmed up the estimated 7,000-plus crowd inside Anschutz Sports Pavilion by reminding them, “I’m a Kansas guy” before launching into his speech about middle-class economics, emphasizing initiatives he’d pushed two days earlier in his State of the Union address.

Issues aside, Obama’s star-power alone was a big draw.

The day that tickets were made available, KU law student Brian Vanorsby showed up on campus at 4 a.m. He was second in line for the ticket window, which opened five hours later.

“He’s the president,” Vanorsby said from the line. “I can say I was in the same room as him — a big room, but the same nonetheless.”

In the crowd at Anschutz, Saleh Alameri, a KU freshman from United Arab Emirates, said, “You don’t always get a chance to see the president. … This is a golden opportunity for me.”

University spokesman Joe Monaco said the energy on campus prior to Obama’s arrival was “incredible” and the event itself “electric.”

“The entire nation was watching the University of Kansas at that moment,” Monaco said. “To hear the president of the United States yell, ‘Rock Chalk!’ and then have thousands of people yell back, ‘Jayhawk!’ I mean, it’s one of those moments that gives you goose bumps.”