LAWRENCE, Kan. — The University of Kansas was established in the 1860s, and the game of basketball was introduced not long after.
Then-athletic director James Naismith, brought over the sport from Massachusetts and the rest is history.
Sights and sounds of KU fans flooding the streets on game days may seem like a “spur of the moment” celebration.
However, Brittany Keegan, with the Watkins Museum of History, says it was actually born out of historical traditions.
In fact, celebrations on Massachusetts Street date all the way back to the end of World War I.
“As soon as the news hit Lawrence, church bells started ringing and people immediately flooded Mass Street,” Keegan said.
The first real evidence of a KU basketball victory can be traced back to 1952. While students were not flooding the streets yet, activities were more organized.
“Not a celebration but there was a parade,” Keegan said.
Keegan says time changed a lot of things including the evolution of modern day cameras.
People today can capture and preserve more of the modern-day celebrations than in decades past.
“There might have been mention of that in the newspaper, but we can really see the film and kind of see how Mass Street floods," Keegan said.
Curtis Marsh, also known as “Mr. KU,” says the biggest difference from then and now is where people congregate.
Marsh says the evolution of foot traffic happens rather naturally. At first, people met in the heart of campus and as Mass Street began to boom in the last 15 years, people gravitated.
“88, 91, 93 completely focused on Jayhawk Boulevard as the spot to celebrate,” Marsh said. “And then ’03 is when I would argue, it begins to transition. So here are people driving down Mass Street.”
But regardless of the which era fans are in, one thing about celebrations have always remained the same.
“It makes you feel like you are a part of something so big and timeless,” Marsh said. “For the sake of history, and for the sake of enhancing your experience while you’re here, traditions do that very naturally.”
