my state school mascot love/hate child

A few months ago, some friends and I attended the annual "sunflower showdown" football game between Kansas and Kansas State Universities. We walked to Memorial Stadium from the Lawrence student ghetto, and on the way we passed several loyalty checkpoints (drunk college kids of both schools demanding to know who we would be cheering for).

This should have been a no-brainer. I went to KU, lived in Lawrence for four years and attended a bunch of football and basketball games. But when faced with the "KU or K-State?" question point-blank, I didn't know what to say.

You see, I grew up a K-State fan. Both my parents went there, as did several aunts, uncles and cousins, and my grandfather is a professor of chemistry there. When I was little I'd go so far as to paint my face purple before the basketball games. I'd draw pictures of my favorite players while listening to the K-State Jazz band's recording of the fight song, and when a friend came over and accidentally broke the record, I locked myself in the bathroom and cried.

Eventually I dried my eyes, grew up and applied to state college. Only when it came time to pick a school, I decided I'd much rather spend four years in Lawrence then in Manhattan. KU had better programs for what I wanted to do, gave me more scholarship money, and Lawrence was a fresh and exciting place.

In my years at KU and since, I've been a big KU fan. I went to a lot of games, kept up on their performance when I was out of the country, and even started an unofficial Jeff Graves fan club ("the graveyard"). But in all honesty, it's never been too difficult to be a KU fan. They've always got the best players and coaches, and there's nowhere more exciting to see a home game than Allen Fieldhouse.

K-State, on the otherhand, has been an unworthy B-Ball rival for as long as I can remember. They've lost 32 of the last 33 matchups, and if things go as predicted, they'll lose yet another tonight. As much as it pains me, I'll watch the whole thing from beginning to end. On one hand, I'd hate to see Kansas lose, but on the other, watching them beat-up on the boys in purple just brings back too many painful memories of being taunted by my childhood Jayhawk friends.

This brings us to the illustration you see at the top of the screen. I drew this years ago when I was out of the country and the whole idea of people a few miles apart hating on each other so passionately seemed particularly absurd.

It isn't beautiful, and some of you may even find it offensive, but the Wildhawkjaykitty is me -- the imaginary lovechild of two sworn enemies; an awkward emblem of state school-sponsored schizophrenia.