KU fans enjoy everything but the result Saturday during watch party at stadium
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- About 2,000 fans attended KU's stadium watch party for the KU-Mizzou game.
- Fans experienced the renovated Memorial Stadium from the field and end zones.
- Despite the 42-31 loss, fans praised the atmosphere and upgraded facilities.
Rather than make the 2 1/2 hour, 165-mile drive from Lawrence to Columbia while scrambling to find last-minute deals for tickets on the secondary market, 2,000 or so Kansas football fans gathered at the newly renovated David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium on Saturday to watch rivals KU and Mizzou play football on the big screen on a beautiful, 72-degree late-summer day.
The opening of the stadium for the “StorageMart Border Showdown Watch Party” appeared to be a big hit, especially early when the KU band and spirit squad members celebrated wildly as the Jayhawks stormed to a 21-6 lead — albeit in an eventual 42-31 loss to the Tigers.
“I’d say it’s a gathering of Jayhawk faithful enjoying a beautiful new facility,” Curtis Marsh, a KU faculty member in the Institute for Leadership Studies told The Star from a spot outside the new Touchdown Club behind the north end zone.
Fans were seated (and stood during many of the game’s crucial plays) on the actual playing surface, facing the massive video board located in the south end zone. Also, fans sat in the north end zone area and the stands on the first level of the west and north ends. The KU band was located in the northeast bleachers.
“We’re on a campus that is beyond compare on a gorgeous day, and we do not have to deal with Missouri fans giving us crap because we are in such a better place than they are,” Marsh added, smiling.
Marsh added that opening the stadium to fans was “a spectacular idea. I’m reminded of games that we were encouraged to watch in the fieldhouse — Final Four games and a similar atmosphere. But I would up the ante a bit. This is a brand new stadium, and what we want to do is give people opportunities to experience it in a family-friendly atmosphere and understand what a fantastic facility it is for the university.”
KU grads Mark and Susie Fagan of Lawrence on Saturday entered the refurbished Memorial Stadium for the first time.
“I think it’s outstanding,” Mark Fagan, a 1991 KU grad said of Saturday’s party. “This place is really a showcase and everybody should be proud of it and every Jayhawk should be proud of it. And now we all get to see it, but we get to see it the best way. We’re playing Mizzou.”
Mark Fagan noted: “It’s like a giant lawn party, except it’s on the football field. Back in the old days, we used to sit up on the (Campanile) Hill and look down in the stadium. Now we’re here in the stadium, to actually watch the game from the field.
“I would say here you don’t need an amplifier. We already have the crowd. Everybody’s amped up, and so we’re all here, cheering on KU. I mean, this is a game against Mizzou. You’ve got to get the win.”
After not getting the ‘W’ Fagan stated: “This place is great and I’m looking forward to it being even better when Mizzou comes here next year.”
Susie Fagan, a 1992 KU grad who is from Lawrence, stated: “I grew up coming to football games with my family and we had to sit on those hard, hot metal bleachers for a long time, and this is a great improvement.
“It’s so much better. They’ve done a good job of maintaining some of the history and what the stadium was initially designed for as a memorial, and I’m excited to see the whole thing complete,” she added.
There was at least one fan, and maybe just one fan, wearing a Mizzou hat and Mizzou Tigers T shirt at the event. Theodore “Thor” Burtin of Kansas City, whose son is in the KU band, displayed the MU colors proudly.
“I had a wonderful time. I had an amazing time,” he said as he and his wife exited the stadium. “The atmosphere was wonderful. Everybody treated me with respect.”
Burtin noted that some Jayhawk fans teased, “’What? You are kind of outnumbered here.’ But it was all in good fun. It was not bad at all,” he added.
He agreed with a Star reporter that he may have been the only MU fan at the KU watch party.
“An army of one,” Burtin said, smiling.
He thanked KU for opening the stadium.
“This right here was worth it to be in the stadium among the fans,” Burtin said. “For me to feel the love is great.”
This story was originally published September 6, 2025 at 10:13 PM with the headline "KU fans enjoy everything but the result Saturday during watch party at stadium."
