Alumni to follow 'Hawks through NCAA

Alumni and friends who follow the Kansas Jayhawks to St. Louis, site of sub-regional play in the NCAA Tournament, will gather to cheer the team at a party and pre-game rally at beginning at 3 p.m. Thursday, March 14, at the Hard Rock Cafe in Union Station, adjacent to the Hyatt Union Station, 1820 Market St. in downtown St. Louis. The rally, featuring the KU Pep Band and the Spirit Squad, will begin at 4 p.m.

Following the celebration, the Jayhawks, seeded No. 1 in the Midwest region of the tournament, will play the Holy Cross Crusaders at 6:50 p.m. at the Edward D. Jones Dome in St. Louis.

Should the Jayhawks advance to the second round, they would face Stanford or Western Kentucky at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 16. The pre-game festivities would begin at 1 p.m. at the Hard Rock Cafe; the band and Spirit Squad would join the crowd for the rally at 2 p.m. The first game of the Saturday session begins at 4:30 p.m.

"St. Louis is an ideal location for the KU faithful, and we hope many Jayhawks will make the trip and begin their NCAA celebration at our events," said Kirk Cerny, senior vice president for membership services for the Kansas Alumni Association, which will host the rallies in St. Louis and other alumni events at KU game sites as the team advances in the tournament.

Tickets for the general public to attend the games in St. Louis are available through Ticketmaster, 314-421-4400, or www.ticketmaster.com. The University's allotment of 450 tickets has been distributed by KU Athletics to members of the official traveling party and the Williams Educational Fund; faculty, staff and students who were selected through a campus drawing and have purchased tickets through the athletics department will need to pick up their tickets at the arena in St. Louis. Tickets prices are $50 per session or $150 for all sessions.

The tournament hotel for Kansas fans is the Sheraton at Westport, 191 Westport Plaza (I-270 & Page), a 20- to 30-minute drive to the arena. For reservations, call 314-878-1500 or 800-822-3535; the hotel is offering a $79 rate for Kansas fans. The athletics department will coordinate reservations for the limited number of rooms at Hyatt Union Station, which is the team hotel.

Click here for more details about the rally location in St. Louis. For information on KU rallies as the Jayhawks continue to compete, please return to the Alumni Association Web site: www.kualumni.org, or call the Association, 1-800-KUHAWKS (584-2957).

Additional information about the Jayhawks also is available from KU Athletics, which includes on its site a printable bracket for fans to track the results of all the NCAA Tournament games:

Rock Chalk Jayhawks!

#top#