More than a game: Shocker fans have touching stories on why this NIT run means so much

Wichita State fans have had plenty to cheer for the past two months since the men’s basketball team turned around its season and is now playing in the semifinals of the National Invitation Tournament in New York City.

When the Shockers take on Lipscomb at 6 p.m. Central time Tuesday (ESPN), WSU fans everywhere will be cheering on their team. Regardless of the end result, gathering with loved ones to cheer on their beloved Shockers means more than winning and losing.

WSU basketball has forged the bonds of family even tighter. It’s helped provide an escape for people going through some of their darkest moments. It’s helped inspire and motivate people of all ages.

Here are their stories:

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This past year was shaping up as the worst yet in the life of Vickie Clausen. In August she lost her mother, who was living with her at the time, then lost her father just three months later.

With both of her parents suddenly gone, Clausen admits depression was seeping into her life. But one thing was able to rescue her from despair.

“Wichita State basketball this season has been a God-send to me,” Clausen said. “I tell people all the time it honestly helped keep my sanity. Losing both of my parents at nearly the same time was really rough on me. But having the Shockers has made all of the difference in the world. It’s given me something to look forward to.”

Whenever she felt herself spiraling downward, Clausen knew she could always rely on the Shockers to bring her out of it.

A long-time regular at games at Koch Arena, Clausen is widely known in the Shocker community. She crafts signs with the WSU players’ names, then delivers them to the student section before games. She’s also an administrator for the popular WSU Facebook group, “The Shocker Faithful,” where she connects with WSU fans from all over the country.

People who know Clausen in this realm are likely unaware of her personal tragedies. That’s because Clausen feels normal in the world painted yellow and black.

“It’s like I’m an entirely different person when I’m at Koch Arena,” Clausen said. “I look forward to the games so much and I’m just so excited to go and watch the Shockers play. My day can be really, really rough, but it will instantly get better if I know I’m going to Koch Arena that night.”

Even when the Shockers were losing, when they lost their home opener for the first time in two decades and started the season 8-11, Clausen was an eternal optimist.

It was truly a remarkable thing to witness for her daughter, Krista Weaver, to see this kind of love and support from someone who had been ravaged by grief. When others were giving up on WSU being able to accomplish anything of note this season, Clausen kept her faith.

“Even when they were struggling, she was always the same,” Weaver said. “She was encouraging the players and the coaches and she believed. She knew coach Marshall would get them turned around and they really did. She’s been so excited watching them win and we even considered going to New York, it just didn’t work out.”

They won’t be there in person on Tuesday, but you can plan on see them leading the WSU cheering section front and center at their reserved table at Walt’s East.

Nearly five months later, Clausen said she is doing much better now. Part of that is letting the grieving process take its course, but another reason is because of the Shockers. It certainly doesn’t hurt that they’re now playing for a championship this week.

“There was a time there where we were really concerned about her going through depression just because of everything that happened,” Weaver said. “But luckily, Shocker basketball season started and that just brought that joy and happiness out in her. It’s been so much fun to watch her be so involved and so invested in the team and see them have success.”

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When Janet Lawrence scored season tickets to Shocker games through her work, it started with a fun night out with her sister, Lori Laughlin, to the games. But one night when Lori couldn’t make it, she suggested that Janet take their 82-year-old mother, Bunny Nedeau.

There was hesitation because Janet wasn’t sure her mother would enjoy basketball, but much to her surprise, Bunny was immediately hooked. She fell in love with the Shockers, Fred VanVleet, Ron Baker and Landry Shamet. Three years later, she hasn’t missed a game at Koch Arena.

“Now my sister regrets ever telling me that because now she doesn’t get to go to games,” Lawrence said, laughing.

The sisters knew their mother’s fandom had reached a new level this past summer when it was determined she would require a knee replacement and cataract surgery. She was unrelenting with her doctors that these surgeries take place before November.

Finally, Lori asked her mother why she was in such a hurry.

“She told me, ‘If I don’t get my cataracts replaced, then I can’t watch Shocker basketball and if I don’t get my knee replaced, I can’t go to Shocker games,’” Laughlin said, laughing.

Watching WSU has created a bond that previously was not there. The family was close, but the shared experiences of WSU basketball was a new way for them to grow even closer.

“It’s brought all three of us closer together,” Lawrence said. “We don’t know when the day will come when we don’t have her anymore, so it’s so amazing that we have this connection now and this is what we get to share with her as she’s gotten older.”

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Anyone who has traveled with the Wichita State team on the road is familiar with Shocker super fan Jon Markwell, who had followed the team to every destination since the second year of the Gregg Marshall era.

Markwell remembers traveling to North Carolina for a road trip to Appalachian State in Marshall’s first season. He was the only Shocker fan from Wichita in attendance. Marshall soon took notice of him and invited him to stay at the team hotel, attend the team’s shootarounds and eventually travel with the team.

It didn’t take long for Markwell to be joined by more fans once WSU’s success took off. But on those far-away road trips, Markwell was always there in yellow cheering on the Shockers.

“I always tried to the kids on the team know that it might just be me here, but I represent 10,500 people wherever I go,” Markwell said. “There are people that really want to be here and really care about you and want you to have a great life and a great basketball career. So I always tried to communicate that so they knew they had support.”

Just last week, Markwell and a friend hopped in a car and drove 2,300 miles to Greenville, S.C. to watch the Shockers play in the NIT against Furman and Clemson. But Markwell won’t be in New York City to watch WSU this week.

That’s because he decided to stay home in Wichita with his wife, Sheryl, who has an illness. It was tough for him to pass up a road trip with the Shockers, but he’s come to realize his priorities in life.

“I realized that maybe I was being a little selfish when I retired and I decided to I wanted to do something for me,” Markwell said. “I worked hard my whole life and did things mostly for my family. I really hadn’t done something that was a dream of mine, so what I did for those 10 years was live out a dream of mine. Now I realize it was maybe a little selfish and I didn’t realize it at the time.”

Clearly, Markwell is being a little too hard on himself. His wife is also a huge Shocker fan and enjoyed traveling with him on many of the road trips.

But now on Tuesday night he will have to adjust to watching WSU on the television.

“Boy, it’s a difficult thing,” Markwell said. “I’ve never watched a game on TV before. So that was really crazy. It was definitely an odd feeling. But the decision to stay home was the right decision because I’m 72 years old and I can’t keep doing that forever and I needed to be home.”

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Heath Curry can still recall the tension in his household the night before Ryker, his 12-year-old son, was set to undergo open heart surgery.

“He was scared out of his mind and we were all pretty scared,” Heath Curry said.

Then his cell phone rang and on the other line was WSU basketball coach Gregg Marshall. At first, Heath thought it was a joke. But then Marshall asked if Ryker was there and Heath, still in astonishment, went to go fetch his son.

It turns out that a family friend, Johnny Coy, a former WSU baseball player, had passed along Ryker’s story to Marshall and given him Heath’s cell phone. So the night before the surgery, Marshall phoned and talked with Ryker on the phone.

To this day, Heath isn’t exactly sure what Marshall said, other than the Shockers were going to be playing for him the next night against Loyola-Chicago. But whatever Marshall said, it seemed to calm Ryker’s nerves.

“After that phone call, it was like he put a little calm in him,” Curry said. “He was like, ‘All right, let’s get this over with. I’ll be back 100 percent.’ I still don’t know what he said, but it definitely changed his outlook.”

The next day, Ryker had successful open heart surgery and the Shockers beat Loyola-Chicago by 22 points. The family was invited to attend a practice the following week, where Ryker was able to meet and take pictures with Ron Baker and Fred VanVleet.

Currently, Ryker is 15 and a freshman in high school. According to his father, Ryker wears WSU shirts almost every day in school and he’ll dressed in yellow Tuesday in preparation for the game.

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During Wichita State’s rise to national prominence, one of the team’s biggest supporters was a 10-year-old boy named Michael Hager who had Down syndrome. Once Marshall heard about him, Michael was invited to attend as many games as he could and was a frequent visitor to the locker room after games to help participate in the victory chant and meet the players.

Rebecca Shaw was a close family friend who babysat Michael growing up. She says the experiences of hanging out with the Shockers and forming friendships with the players was truly rewarding for Michael.

“He wasn’t the most social kid, but when he went to Shocker games and got to go back to the locker room, that was when he was the happiest,” Shaw said.

Michael’s family has since moved to Missouri, so he no longer is a regular at games. But seeing how Marshall and his players went out of their way to include Michael and make him feel special was something that has always stuck with her.

She was already a Shocker fan, but seeing this kind of behavior first-hand only made her more proud.

“Coach Marshall doesn’t just recruit good players on the court, he recruits guys that are amazing people on and off the court,” Shaw said. “Seeing them treat Michael that way with so much love really showed me how this is bigger than just a basketball team to this community.”

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Carol Graham knew she had a favorite player pegged on this new-look WSU roster before the Shockers had even played a game.

Last summer she was shopping in the Walmart in Augusta when she walked by a tall, young man. She figured he was too tall not to be a basketball player, so she asked him if he played and if so, then where? Much to her surprise, he replied Wichita State.

It was incoming freshman Rod Brown with his parents from Memphis, as they were preparing him to make the move to Wichita. Graham welcomed the family and ensured Brown’s parents that their son was in good hands with the WSU fan base.

“For so many of us long-time Shocker fans, the players feel like family,” Graham said. “We view the players kind of like our own children. We get to see them grow and mature and succeed. Now I cheer extra hard every time (Brown) gets in the game. We feel like we’re his family here in Wichita.”

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Out in Long Beach, Calif., Kristen Wood is always trying to find ways to spend time and connect with her 96-year-old great aunt, Alberta Breit, who has Alzheimer’s.

Sometimes that’s difficult, as the disease makes her go into question loops for hours at a time. She’s rarely able to maintain her focus on any activity. But the one thing that has held her undivided attention? Wichita State basketball.

“She can’t really focus on anything on the television, but for some reason those games something magical happens,” Wood said. “Does she remember who WSU is? Nope. Does she know who we’re rooting for? Not really. But for however long we watch, there’s no questions. She watches the game intently. We haven’t found anything that holds her attention like Shocker basketball.”