The capacity in Bramlage hasn't been that since they put in the Loge Seating. It's about ~11,500, and trust me it was full.
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At least it doesn’t smell like a barn full of piss.
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UMKC pouch of ouch
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That game was definitely THE turning point. Lon would leave for UFLA after the 88-89 season (and get his 1st FF there also).
Altman
Asbury
Wooly
Huggs
Frank
Squeak
vs
Roy to Self.
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Why did Kruger leave? KSU alum, feels like nowadays that'd be considered a dream set-up.
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Frank was seriously fucked over by AD, Currie. Not allowing Jamar to play in his last game because he took $100 from an old AAU coach?

That was a shit deal. And I still to this day, don’t blame Frank one bit. And I disagree (with personal knowledge) that Mrs Frank disliked MHK.
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Wasn’t there a mini-mutiny led by Will Spradling and some guys, too?
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Another thing happened in 1988 that changed the course: the Hawk’togon opened. They ditched Ahearn for reasons I’ve never understood. A refurb of that place would’ve done wonders for KSU.

It’s hard to say it’s hurt them for home games, they won 79% there be 76% at Bram. But I’d bet it hurt recruiting not being able to sell all the rowdy crowds each nite in that barn.

(Side note: after Rupp opened late 70s, programs decided to build new and large. Carrier Dome, Dean Dome was drawn up, etc). Paradox: KSU got their program underway but KU couldn’t due to being a down program at the time under Ted

TLDR: KUs struggles saved the Phog
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Lon saw the writing. The Big 8 was making overtures to KSU to get their collective shit together in football or say goodbye.

Although hired on 11/24, on 11/30/88 Steve Miller introduced one Bill Snyder as the head coach of K-State football. Snyder only took the job with the PROMISE the athletic department would pour millions into football for facilities, recruiting and most of all coaches.

MBBall was relatively inexpensive to run (at the time). And Kruger had held it together really well. Even with the introduction of Billy Tubbs style basketball. It took the league into a new age. Waymon Tisdale was unlike anything the Big 8 had ever seen and they played a run and gun style for 40 minutes.

That led to an incredible era of Big 8 bball. Mitch, Danny, Jeff Grayer, Chievous.. stars galore. Brown, Kruger, Norm, Tubbs.

Was amazing.

He moved on because he knew a teacher’s/cow college couldn’t support both.

He was right.
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Also true. The joint was a fire hazard. At the time it was either raise money for a new arena or put almost the same amount into bringing Ahearn up to code.

Never thought it would result ina generic stale place. But it did. Wish they could have done it differently. Like Hinkle FH at Butler.

But here we are…
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Apocryphal perhaps, but I’ve always heard KSU had the biggest arena in America when it opened (14k). And the state had the two biggest when Phog opened 4 years later (17,000). I’ve tried verifying this myself and I haven’t found any contrary evidence

It’s possible Ahearn had to go but that doesn’t explain why it’s still in use by KSU today. I’d bet the same folks who designed and built it, then worked on Phog too
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It was 14k. But that didn’t last long. Fire Marshal ended that quickly.

And going back through some stuff, Bramlage is not the building that was presented in the original discussion. Not even close. It was supposed to be round and have two levels. Limestone on the outside. And was supposed to hold 16k.

Ahearn is in use today because they made the requisite upgrades to the facility to allow up to 6500 fans to watch a game. But even when I was a kid it was a raised floor over dirt. You could look up to the ceiling from the outer concourse and see the dirt in in the air above the scoreboard. I had a lot of fun there.
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Oh and if they renovated Ahearn, they would have had to shut it down. Unlike Gallagher-Iba, they were able to play while the roof was raised. And they ruined that place. Holy shit it was LOUD.
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What is EMAW? Is that "every man a wildcat"? That's gotta be the gayest sports slogan I've heard since I was in Seattle and everyone had a $300 authentic #12 jersey with "FAN" stitched on the back, hyping each other up with man hugs calling each other "12s", telling me that KC wasn't as loud as "12 Stadium".

I'm a Jayhawk fan now. Rock Chalk is at least unique and has history. EMAW is something that the youtube algorithm would recommend to me because I watched one video about how a video game sucked.
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