Oh Fight You K-State Wildcats!

The Aging Disco Diva does not normally blog on weekends but I am trying to find something constructive to do (that does not involve consuming the caloric equivalent of a small, third world country)

My all-consuming interests do stretch beyond juicy gossip, expensive chocolate, imported champagne and pool boys with six-pack abs. My two greatest passions are my family and Kansas State University. If I had to choose between my favorite Cheese Cloth Shirt and my beloved Wildcats…well, the shirt would have to go.

Though I was born in the center of the disco world (New York of course) I spent my formative boogey years (ages 18-21) as a disco diva tearing up the dance floor in Mother’s Worry, the hot disco spot in Aggieville (Manhattan, Kansas) while attending KSU.Yes, I moved from the Big Apple to the Little Apple to attend college and have never regretted the decision.

Aggieville is one of the many reasons why I love Manhattan. It is a six block shopping district built right off campus that caters specifically to college students (and visiting alumni) It had every type of business a college student could want: bars, book stores, bars, head shops, bars, movie theaters, bars, fast food joints and bars. The head shops are now gone, but there are still plenty of bars, great places to eat and places to buy all kinds of wonderful purple K-State stuff. Back when I was attending college the legal drinking age was 18 so everyone would head to Aggieville after class (for those who actually showed up to classes) and party hardy until the wee hours of the morning and then crawl back (in some cases literally) to the dorms. Since Aggieville was within spitting distance of campus I think it really cut down on the number of people who were tempted to drive after an evening (or an afternoon + evening + late night) of drinking… The ‘ville still hops on football weekends and after home basketball games. If you ever want to peek at what is going on here are several live webcams of Aggieville:

Aggieville live webcams

I love Manhattan, Kansas, Aggieville and Kansas State University because if I had not left New York I never would have met Mr. Aging Disco Diva….I am chuckling as I type that phrase because anyone who knows him would laugh their arses off at that description…he was/is the most anti-disco person on the planet, but he loves his vertically challenged diva and he IS my favorite red neck....

This is the way my better half probably envisions himself, without the beer cans strapped around his waist, LOL

But back to my Wildcats....In the fall Saturdays are set aside for all good Wildcat fans to don as much purple attire as is humanly possible, paint a PowerCat on your face (you ain’t seen nothing until you see hundreds of old broads, moi among them, walking around Manhattan, Kansas with purple PowerCat tattoos on their wrinkly cheeks) drink adult beverages and attend Kansas State Football games. You have to understand that Wildcat fans define fanaticism.

Hell, let’s be honest….we are more than merely fans, we are obsessed, and pride ourselves on bleeding purple…

My husband and I have season football tickets---I just switch to domestic champagne and Mars Bars so that we can afford the tickets. In the winter, since we do not have season basketball tickets, we support our men and women’s basketball teams by donning as much warm purple attire as is humanly possible, stoking up the fireplace and drinking adult beverages while watching the games on TV.

Yesterday my beloved Wildcat men and women’s teams played so it took a lot of will power to wait until 12pm to start drinking adult beverages—it just is not lady like to quaff before noon…unless it is an early football game, in which case anytime after 6am is kosher. It turned out to be a banner weekend for everyone that has purple pride, both Wildcat basketball teams won and our indoor track and field team had a fine showing at the Wildcat Invitational.

Here are some of my favorite Wildcat videos--

Our freshman phenoms having fun after practice:

The reason why we are so fanatical (The K-State football story):

Our Big 12 Football Championship:

Bring on the Cats!

Our arch rivals are the KU crows (AKA chickenhawks...they insist on calling themselves Jay Hawks, but we Cat fans know best) When I was attending KSU back in the early 1970s it was tradition to sneak live chickens (painted blue and red--- the chickenhawk colors) into our home game and throw them onto the court as each hawker was being introduced. It became quite the elaborate scheme: the properly dyed chickens would have their heads placed under their wings to keep them quiet and the birds would be inserted into the coat sleeves of various frat rats who would sneak them in before tip off. Ernie "The Czar" Barrett, our athletic director, would himself prowl the lines of students waiting to get into the game, hoping to confiscate the sacrificial birds but we students, who did not have much else to do other than drink and plot for the big KU-KSU game, would always be a step ahead. Back then we were awesome in basketball and it was a given that we would go to the big dance every year.

Chicken tossing was great fun but the tradition slowly died out as we sunk into the depths of basketball suckydom in the early 1990s, thanks in great part to Tan Tom Asbury (ass-buried as we referred to him) who singlehandedly set us back decades, but did manage to keep all the tanning parlors in Manhattan in business.

To say Tan Tom was hated by the Wildcat faithful would be an understatement---and the feeling was mutual. Mr Aging Disco Diva saw Coach Asbury at a gas station one time and had to be physically restrained from leaving our car and going up to ole Tom and giving him an earful. Tom was followed by Jim Wooldridge.

We all loved Coach Wooldridge, except on the basketball court. He was a wonderful ambassador for our university, a hell of a nice guy, and we wished he could have stayed on with KSU--in any capacity except as our coach.

On March 23, 2006 the Wildcats chose legendary head coach Bob Huggins as the school's 21st head coach. It was a real gamble for us; our university takes pride in running clean programs and hiring coaches with high standards and ethics. Huggins had baggage (both in his love of adult beverages and rumors of academic "issues" with some of his recruits) but let's face it, we were desperate. Huggins brought excitement back to K-State basketball but after promising us that he would never leave, he did a “wham bam thank you ma’am” without even giving us the common courtesy of a reach-around.

He slithered off into the night but thank goodness his assistant coaches stayed.

A New Era Begins

Why we love Coach Frank Martin...

Frank Martin is our new coach; he is smart, intense and an East Coast Hispanic (just like the Aging Disco Diva, LOL) He could have bolted with Huggins (It seems to be common knowledge that Huggins tried to not only take all our recruits with him, he tried to lure all our coaches to West Virginia too) but again like the Aging Disco Diva, Coach Martin fell in love with the people of Kansas. He understands what we stand for and we were so lucky that he decided to stay.

Now that the basketball excitement is back the young pups on campus are bringing back the chicken toss:

Well the Aging Disco Diva needs to get back to reading the Tom Cruise unauthorized biography so that she can dish with you tomorrow. Time to grab another cup of coffee and go curl up with my book.