For forty years my husband and I have been going to the University of Kansas basketball games. We started as students and now go as faculty member and wife. Over 30 years of service has given my husband fairly good seats...not as good as we had 40 years ago when college basketball was an entirely different animal, but pretty good. This year Allen Fieldhouse (the facility where the games are held) is celebrating its 60th birthday. Much has been written about how special the atmosphere is in Allen. Loud, excited, crazed for the team, etc. I suspect that much of the energy of the place comes from how uncomfortable most of us are. There are no hand rails on the steps so you have to be young enough to climb without help. There are very few seats with backs and they certainly are not the padded theater seating that other venues have. But worst of all is that the bleacher seating is marked for 1950s sized bottoms.
I have a coveted seat on the aisle with a clear view of the game but for most games that seat is just a few inches on the end of the bleacher and half of my overlarge bottom stays levitated in air like these guys' on the other side of my aisle. It makes me ready and willing to leap up and cheer from my half seat, though, and at least I don't have to stand for the whole game like the students do:
I still love going to the games...but here's hoping only skinny people show up for my row. Rock Chalk Jayhawk!
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