KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As Big 12 basketball fans descended Thursday on downtown Kansas City, Missouri, to watch the Big 12 Men's Basketball Tournament quarterfinals, many recalled the moment when players for Texas and Texas Tech were taken off the floor last year.
Hours later it became official — the 2020 Big 12 tourney was canceled along with almost everything else as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted our lives.
“By the time I got to Kansas City, they actually canceled everything,” Jeremy Dawson, who returned this week for the 2021 tourney, said.
Dawson is a University of Kansas fan who lives in Omaha, Nebraska. He drives to Kansas City for the tournament every year.
“I keep seeing things from a year ago and emails that I got, stuff saying it’s been a year since the pandemic closing down,” Dawson said. “It’s like, 'Wow, that’s a long year.'”
Baylor fan Sam Welch agreed. He shared a picture from inside the T-Mobile Center, which was still called the Sprint Center way back then, from the 2020 Big 12 Men's Basketball Tournament. Every seat was filled and no one wore masks.
“It was full capacity and not a care in the world about anything else,” Welch said.
Viewers were asked to share the last photos they captured before the COVID-19 lockdowns with 41 Action News. The submissions included a surprise 40th anniversary party, a Sporting Kansas City game, a trip to Disney World and a dinner out with friends.
Before KCMO Mayor Quinton Lucas declared a state of emergency, Geonna Alexander took a picture of her then-2-year-old daughter Journey dancing outside.
“So much has changed just people’s interaction," she said. "It’s not the same. You only see half of people’s faces. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that everything gets better and we can have the same interaction as we used to.”
