Thousands in the streets show how Wichita celebrates March Madness
In an unprecedented bout of March Madness for Wichita, thousands of people descended on downtown to be part of the NCAA Tournament experience. A lucky 15,000 came for the game; many more came for the parties in the streets, bars and restaurants around the Intrust Bank Arena.
These are some of their stories:
Ich bin ein Retriever
The day after unheralded Maryland-Baltimore County scored a historic upset over Virginia, three friends, David Hughes, Tyler Sperry and Joel Ramos, were walking around the Intrust Bank Arena sporting UMBC T-shirts.
None of them had heard of UMBC before about a week ago, when the Retrievers upset Vermont in their conference tournament to win the America East’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Now, the nation knows the initials UMBC after Friday’s game, the first time in men's tournament history that a 16 seed had beaten a No. 1 seed .
“Everyone loved to see that upset,” Hughes said. “They love to see the underdog win.”
Their shirts were black, bearing the distinctive UMBC golden retriever logo. Everywhere they went, people were high-fiving and fist-bumping the three instant fans.
“We’ve gotten two rounds of drinks in these,” Sperry said.
They only got a little grief, from fans of K-State, who’ll be UMBC’s next opponent Sunday.
So where did they get UMBC shirts anyway?
“We made them this morning,” Sperry confided. “Don’t tell the NCAA.”
Hangin’ out with the big dog
Angie Dick brought her dog to the party downtown. Nothing too unusual about that, except that Sega is a very large dog.
The great Dane weighs about 135 pounds and stands well over six feet when stretching for a french fry or a bite of buffalo wing.
Twin sisters Sharon Kress and Karen Smart were more than happy to supply, passing Sega some Scooby snacks from their basket at the Buffalo Wild Wings tent across the street from the Intrust Bank Arena. Bystander Anthony Resendez even asked to have his picture taken with Sega, who towered over him.
Sega basked in the attention. “She’s loving it,” Dick said.
No word on whether Sega’s a UMBC fan.
We’ve all done that, Kaitlyn
Derby High School senior Kaitlyn Sanders wants to be a sports journalist someday. At the tournament in Wichita she worked for the NCAA, gathering post-game quotes that were printed out and distributed to members of the media.
“I had no idea what I was going to do, but everyone’s been really helpful,” said Sanders, 17. “These guys are really nice, and it makes me feel excited and positive about it.”
Over the past four days she learned valuable lessons about how to navigate the media scrum, she said: Wear comfortable shoes. Grab a meal when you can. Don’t let people push you around in the locker room.
And don’t be embarrassed if you make a mistake.
In the University of Kansas locker room after the team’s victory over Penn on Thursday, Sanders said she saw freshman Marcus Garrett sitting by himself. So she rushed over to grab some comments.
“Hey, Vick,” she said, referring to KU sophomore Lagerald Vick.
“Vick’s over there,” Garrett said, pointing.
“I was like, ‘I’m so sorry, Garrett. I know who you are,’” Sanders said. “But that’s the only embarrassing thing that's happened so far."
A.J. you’re missing a heck of a game
You might think the guy who runs the Intrust Bank Arena would have the best seat in the house.
And you’d be wrong.
Just before tipoff for Saturday’s Kansas-Seton Hall game, A.J. Boleski, general manager of the arena, was stationed outside the north entrance, making sure the lines of fans didn’t get too bunched up.
“We’ve got plenty of staff inside,” he said.
Boleski said he wouldn’t be watching the game, although he’d peek in periodically to make sure things were running smoothly.
It’s only fair.
“Most of our employees don’t get to watch the game,” he said.
A long way from home with no ticket
Mark Matthews came all the way from Australia to see the Jayhawks play in Wichita Saturday.
And until five hours before tipoff, he didn’t have a ticket.
So he walked around the street parties with a sign reading “I need a ticket. I came 9,000 miles from Australia for this game.”
Mathews said he was a professor of human development (now behaviorial science) at KU from 1983 to 2005, when “the University of Sydney made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.”
Mathews said he finally ran into a man who works for Sprint who had an extra ticket. After getting assurances he’d used the ticket himself, the man agreed to sell it to him.
“He asked $100,” Matthews said. “I gave him $150 because he was such a nice guy.”
This story was originally published March 17, 2018 at 8:56 PM with the headline "Thousands in the streets show how Wichita celebrates March Madness."