The Horns won, but my spelling pic was lost. I much prefer that to the other way around!
The following week, I had planned to watch the Horns beat up Kansas, but alas, COVID disqualified too many of their players, and the game was canceled. So I’m gonna just go ahead and put this score:
December. 12, 2020 • Lawrence, Kansas
Now who’s ready for a bowl game?
It was up to Dicker the Kicker yet again, but the Horns pulled out the win in the closing seconds. It was exciting and a big relief, since we were down 14-0 early.
After our excitement, we rushed back to the tailgate to tune into the ou-Iowa State game for their close call. The sooners managed to win by 1, but we all enjoyed the schaudenfreude as our Okie friends sweated that one out.
We felt pretty good about the 19-point lead, but then the Wildcats came roaring back, scoring 14 unanswered. The Horns held on, and our guys found a W in the “Little Apple.”
Oct. 22, 2016 • Manhattan, Kansas
Early in the season, I was walking through IKEA and spied a box of alphabet cookies. The outside of the box had only K cookies on it (probably because the Swedish brand name for the “biscuits” is Kex), so I grabbed it. What could be more perfect than to spell Texas with a bunch of K’s for K State, I thought.
I brought that box home and hid it in the pantry, making sure it didn’t get mistaken for an up-for-grabs snack. The day of the K State game, I pulled out the cookies and got ready to spell Texas with a bunch of K’s.
Except all the cookies weren’t K’s. Well, duh—of course they weren’t! I thought it was a little odd that a whole box of cookies would be a bunch of one letter, but it’s IKEA, right? Ugh. So dumb. Once I got over my chagrin, I made quick work of picking out the letters I needed. Easiest spelling ever, even if the connection to K State was completely lost.
Speaking of lost, my Horns lost this one, too. Blech.
Kansas State 23, Texas 0To think we were so looking forward to this game! Maybe, just maybe our team had turned a corner and could put together four quarters of offense to add to the (mostly) tough defenses we had seen so far this season.
My son was especially looking forward to K State—ever since I’d bought the Trader Joe’s “Cat Cookies” for Spell Texas. After each game he’d ask if it was safe to open the package yet, and for weeks I’d been saying no.
The cookies might’ve been worth the wait, but the game surely wasn’t. It’s hard to be excited about our offense when we didn’t see any. This was just my second game to watch on TV (thanks to away games that were close to home), so I anticipated sitting back and enjoying the game from the comfort of my couch. But not only was this one frustrating, it wasn’t at all FUN. And our first shutout in 10 years? Yikes.
At least the cookies were tasty.
Dec. 1, 2012 • Manhattan, Kansas
Same song, 12th verse. The 2012 regular season came to a close with another disappointing outing, a game that we COULD’VE won if it weren’t for a few plays.
But then again, it’s not as simple as that. Really, the problem seems to be systemic. Even magically reversing the two INTs would not right all the wrongs we’ve witnessed week in, week out. Between now and our bowl game, the needed overhaul is unlikely unless there’s a leadership change.
In this new mediocrity mindset, we’re left with consolation prizes: we had an unlikely lead at times, we saw some “McCoy to Shipley” magic, Malcolm Brown finally returned to form.
Is that enough for us Texas fans? That would be a big NO. Even the Special K cereal used to spell this week’s Texas is more satisfying.
But we’ll still be here, rooting for our guys, loving our Longhorns, hoping for better days. HOOK ’EM!
Nov. 19, 2011 • DKR
To quote the old Kit Kat commercials, “Gimme a break!” This was NOT the way we wanted to send off the 2011 senior class.
At least we enjoyed a great tailgate!
Spell Texas 
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