Along U.S. Highway 24, fans find it’s possible to root for both Kansas State and Kansas

Sure, he came prepared for anything, even a loss. And he came dressed accordingly. The bartender, Joe Trummer, recognized Gaynor as soon as he walked down the stone steps that look like they’re out of a Boris Karloff soundstage. Trummer was just telling you that most of his clientele, and most of St. Marys, really, is split among KU and K-State.

“Fifty-fifty,” he was saying when Gaynor walked in wearing a gray K-State shirt, heard Trummer and pulled up that K-State shirt to reveal a blue KU shirt.

Like some of his cross-town neighbors, Gaynor says he is a fan of the teams at both Kansas schools. Says this year is important to everyone here. It makes the state look good.

“We’re getting some national recognition because of this,” he says.

Then Trummer interrupts.

“K-State has such a (bad) history they’ve got to outlive,” Trummer says.

Gaynor doesn’t say anything. He watches the TV on the wall opposite the bar and tips the beer again. He shakes his head at the Wildcats’ play. Then he tells you he tends to lean more toward the KU side anyway.

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SILVER LAKE, Kan. | You pull into Silver Lake’s outskirts as Wisconsin is beginning to pull away from K-State. The announcers’ voices are losing some enthusiasm. They are beginning to look toward the other game.

KU is up next, they tell you from 170 miles away in Omaha, Neb. And the Jayhawks’ opponent is UNLV, whose coach is Lon Kruger, born and raised in Silver Lake, the midpoint of your road trip. It was Kruger, of course, who coached K-State the last time the Wildcats appeared in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, in 1988.

You ride past Silver Lake High, where Kruger was a star in the late 1960s. You drive past where some of his family still lives, including Dave Kruger, who told you earlier Saturday most of the family went to Omaha to watch their brother’s team.

Kruger is Silver Lake’s favorite son. And he is coaching against KU.

“That’s a tough one,” says Joe Simecka, who says he knows Kruger. “Lonnie is a good friend and stuff, but I’m a KU fan.”

Simecka and about two dozen others piled into Mac’s Bar on the eastern edge of Silver Lake, a town of about 1,300 residents, to watch and, Simecka says, cheer on K-State. He is covered in KU gear, but he says the appeal of both Kansas teams advancing in the NCAA Tournament is too great, rivalry be damned.

Other states have gotten the attention for too long, Simecka says. He says it is Kansas’ time.

“It always seems like we’re taking a back seat,” he says. “Everybody feels like we’ll just take it and won’t say nothing until it’s over. This year, we’re getting some of the credit that’s due. If that means pulling for K-State, that’s OK.”

But Simecka watched for two hours as K-State unraveled and Wisconsin finished off the Wildcats. Another KU fan in Mac’s, though, sits at the bar and hopes the same fate doesn’t await the Jayhawks. It is Wehner, who says he has been a member at Immaculate Conception Parish in St. Marys for 25 years.

“I’ve been praying for my Hawks, man,” he says.

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LAWRENCE, Kan. | The road narrows, and both geography and team colors remind you where you are. The hills that wrinkle the terrain in Manhattan have flattened, and the Kansas River has turned the grass green instead of light brown. You are close to Point B, and mailboxes and license plates begin to crop up in crimson and blue.

There is no doubt where allegiances lie here, but there still are occasional Wildcats logos. You drive downtown and watch as KU fans pile into sports bars and wing joints. For the most part, everything else is closed.

“Well,” Simecka said during your previous stop, “we were hoping, for Kansas’ sake, they would both win.”

Instead, the road stopped for K-State. Two decades passed since college basketball’s attention focused on Kansas, and for one day, one road connected both towns and thousands of fans. Now, though, KU remains.

And in Lawrence, the road keeps going.

To reach Kent Babb, sports reporter for The Star, call 816-234-4355 or send e-mail to kbabb@kcstar.com.