About us | Division leadership | President’s welcome
Jubilant athletes celebrate two huge wins in 2008: a men’s basketball championship and an Orange Bowl victory.
Will we ever forget where we were when we saw Mario’s famous shot? Our Jayhawks have won another championship; that remarkable comeback is a story of perseverance for the ages.
Most impressively, these team members have become role models, thanks to their leadership on and off the court. I hope to live long enough to talk about them to my grandkids some day.
And let’s not forget about the Orange Bowl. It may be a distant memory, but it still makes me smile. It’s hard to explain why it mattered so much. Perhaps it was the joy of proving wrong the pundits who predicted a quick defeat for our team in a national arena.
It’s funny how passion for sports teams creates an instant bond between people who otherwise have nothing in common. We hug strangers in exhilaration after a victory. We set aside all sense of logic and put on our lucky socks, just in case. We even throw our Midwestern practicality out the window and travel to a distant city to watch our Jayhawks play.
It’s been a year of acclaim for KU. At one point last fall, KU was the only Division I university to have three teams nationally ranked in the top five: football, basketball and debate.
Two KU graduate programs — city management and special education — are ranked number one in the nation. Besides Mark Mangino, another Jayhawk has been named national coach of the year — debate coach Scott Harris (for the second year in a row).
The accolades go on: 13 of KU’s graduate programs are ranked in the top 10 in the country. The university is seventh in the nation in the percentage of students who study abroad. And it’s in the top 20 nationally for the number of alumni who serve in the Peace Corps. It’s no wonder Forbes magazine ranked Lawrence as the seventh smartest city in the U.S.
Yes, I know, pride in these rankings isn’t going to cause us to start waving the wheat. We won’t be booking hotel rooms wherever the debate team is competing next. Or breaking into a cold sweat if one of our academic programs drops a notch. But these accomplishments do take a great deal of hard work. And they depend on support from loyal alumni and friends like you. Whether you support KU through annual giving or have endowed a program to last forever, this university owes much of its success on the field and in the classroom to your generosity.
Rock Chalk, Jayhawks: athletes and scholars!
Dale Seuferling, President
KU Endowment