Kansas Students Pull Down Jayhawks Goal Post after Royals World Series Win
Written by Ryan Wright
Twitter: @HogManInLA
If an act of vandalism can ever be somewhat funny with a certain amount of irony, it seems fitting that students at the University of Kansas, starved for something to celebrate during football season, would tear down the Jayhawks goal post after the Royals won the World Series Sunday night, and that is exactly what happened.
The Royals won the series in dramatic fashion down 2-0 in the ninth but rallied to force extra innings and then tagged the New York Mets for seven runs in the 12th for the franchise’s second World Series title, the other coming in 1985.
The Royals went to the WS in 2014 but had been in a post season drought since 1985 despite putting up winning seasons like in 1989 when the club won 92 games, had the American League Cy Young Award winner in Bret Saberhagen (23 wins), and the AL Rookie of the Year runner-up in pitcher Tom Gordon (17 wins). Since the early 1990’s, the Royals acted like a major league farm club for other major market teams developing players like Zack Greinke, Johnny Damon, Kevin Appier, Jermain Dye, and Carlos Beltran for other squads but all of that started to change in the offseason heading into the 2013 season.
In 2013, the future of the team started to come together with the squad posting an 86-76 record, the club’s first winning season since 2003 (83-79). The 2014 season did not start off looking like the Royals were a contender for the WS but the team got hot in late July carrying the momentum to an 89-73 mark and a Wild Card berth. The Royals won eight straight games knocking off the Oakland Athletics and then swept the Angels facing the Baltimore Orioles in the ALCS.
The Royals swept past the Orioles facing off against a hot Madison Bumgarner and the San Francisco Giants in the 2014 World Series. The series went seven games with the Royals losing 3-2 in the finale.
The 2015 season saw the Royals win the division title posting a regular season record of 95-67. The Royals were the cardiac kids for fans falling behind early in games only to comeback to win in the late innings, Monday night was no different.
Kansas Jayhawk football fans have been a long suffering group with an overall all-time win-loss record of 521-583-54. Their post season record in bowl games is 6-6 over 115 years of fielding teams. The Jayhawks fielded back-to-back winning teams in 2007 (12-1) and 2008 (8-5) after moderate success in 2005 going 7-5 and 2006 ending 6-6. Since the eight-win season in 2008, the Jayhawks have a record of 17-63 including a miserable 0-8 season this year under first-year head coach David Beaty.
One can never condone vandalism, especially since the school will have to pay $6,000 to replace a toppled stadium gate and another $4,500 to replace the goal posts, but there is a message within the action to the university president and the athletic director about satisfying the fan base with something to cheer for on a regular basis during football season. Hanging the sports department’s hat on 14 Final Four appearances and three NCAA National Championships in men’s basketball (1952, 1998, and 2008) does little for a forgotten football crowd year after year.
Photo credit: bustedcoverage.com; Kansas students drop the uprooted goal post outside the stadium.