KU/UM Alumni (Kansas City, Center, Atlanta: transplants, for sale, buy)

[AngusDwyer]

When I visited KCMO last year, I noticed a lot of Mizzou and KU (especially KU) merchandise around (for sale at stores, on people's cars/clothes, etc). Is this purely a question of sports-fandom, or do alumni of the University of Kansas make up a significant percentage of the population of the city?

Put slightly differently: I went to a small college in Massachusetts, and my wife attended a music conservatory in Texas. If we moved to KCMO (and/or JoCo) would we be excluded from polite society because we can't reminisce about lounging on the quad in Lawrence (or even tell you whether there is a quad in Lawrence)?

[lifelongMOgal]

No, you would not be excluded from polite society because neither of you attended KU or MU. Kansas City just happens to have fans and alumni from both KU and MU because it sits nicely between the two main state univeristy campuses. Kansas City is filled with people who have attended college and university from all over.

Your wife may enjoy attending concerts at the Lied Center at KU: Lied Center of Kansas | 2010-11 Season

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by AngusDwyer

When I visited KCMO last year, I noticed a lot of Mizzou and KU (especially KU) merchandise around (for sale at stores, on people's cars/clothes, etc). Is this purely a question of sports-fandom, or do alumni of the University of Kansas make up a significant percentage of the population of the city?

Put slightly differently: I went to a small college in Massachusetts, and my wife attended a music conservatory in Texas. If we moved to KCMO (and/or JoCo) would we be excluded from polite society because we can't reminisce about lounging on the quad in Lawrence (or even tell you whether there is a quad in Lawrence)?

No, but be prepared, as college sports (mostly KU) will be in your face 24-7 in KC. People are completely obsessed with it. A lot of people can not be seen in public without some form of college logo on their person or vehicle and it is a huge topic of conversation in office circles, lunches etc. So even if you don't care about college sports, I would pretend to care (like I did for so many years) so you have something in common to spark conversations and get to know people easily.

I promise, you will have a conversation about or be near a conversation about KU within the first few days of working as college sports is one of the primary ways people in the KC area communicate. People don't ask or care about the city your are from near as much as what college you went to. People there are seriously obsessed.

When you have a high percentage of 45 year old men driving around town with KU logos all over their car and wearing KU gear several times a week or when you go to any local retail store and 25% of the people wearing KU gear on any random day or when you walk through KCI airport and all those traveling from Kansas are wearing KU or Kstate stuff at the freaking airport then you know you know you are in KC. The culture is very much like Nebraska or Oklahoma, only it's in a major city.

Having said that, the people are totally friendly and you won't be left out if you are not into college sports. But play along so you have more in common at the water coolers.

[xenokc]

KC isn't closed to outsiders at all like some other cities are. Where I live and work, about half the people aren't from the area and a good chunk are from the coasts. KC has a pretty good steady growth of people from everywhere, not booming but pretty steady growth from elsewhere.

STL and MSP are often accused of being closed to outsiders but KC pretty much is not.

[RjRobb2]

KU has the following of a major sports team. Surveys shows about 60% of college sports fans in KC are KU fans with KU and K-State making up a big chunk of the rest.

When KU plays MU in either football or basketball, it is a big deal in the city. The Border War goes back to the Civil War and it is one of the biggest rivalries in college sports.

kcmo - we arent even as close to as obsessed as fans of SEC schools. They get into physical fights and damn near kill each other over stuff.

[RichMonk]

It really depends on where you end up in KC. kcmo, I believe, has dramatized it a bit. Certainly, when you are in the Kansas suburbs you will see a lot of KU stuff. IMO, you see more college fandom on the KS side vs MO side. In the city, I think people aren't that rabid about college sports. Even where I live, which is just down the street from KU Med, I don't feel like I see a lot of college stuff. I do see a lot more Royals and Chiefs gear where I am, though.

Game days are always a little funny when everyone comes out of the wood works and shows up at the sports bars. I've seen it get pretty rowdy in some places as the rivalry gets to a fever pitch.

As far as affecting how you can socialize with people here I don't think it matters at all. Trash talk on teams that are not KU and MU is always welcome . Honestly, I think you can get a lot more sports respect in this town if you follow the Chiefs and Royals. KC loves the Chiefs, like a stupid amount. And if you can talk about what is going on with the Royals, you certainly get some cred for knowing anything about them. Maybe its just where I work but its all about the pro sports around here.

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by RjRobb2

KU has the following of a major sports team. Surveys shows about 60% of college sports fans in KC are KU fans with KU and K-State making up a big chunk of the rest.

When KU plays MU in either football or basketball, it is a big deal in the city. The Border War goes back to the Civil War and it is one of the biggest rivalries in college sports.

kcmo - we arent even as close to as obsessed as fans of SEC schools. They get into physical fights and damn near kill each other over stuff.

From what I have seen from living in MO (both KC and StL), those big games are big deals when the games are going on. But every other day of the year people don't care so much. KU fans think about KU 24/7. It's like sex to them I think. .

I agree with you on the south, but in the bigger cities, (Atlanta, Miami, New Orleans etc), the obsession is diluted because those obsessed are more likely to be drowned out by the large population that doesn't care.

In KC, the percent of people that are into college sports is VERY high for a large metropolitan area and it's very obvious and hard to miss. It's not diluted at all. It is what it is.

Denver, Minneapolis, St Louis etc have more and better colleges within or near their metros and they are nothing like KC.

After moving from StL back to KC, I became a CU fan and put a CU logo in my cube just so people knew I was not a KU fan .

Out here the most obnoxious college sports fans are from the midwest and south. They try to bring that culture out here and nobody gives a rip. They still drive around with college logos or decorate cubes and wear the clothing, but out here, it just makes them look like dorks or kind of hickish actually. Even so, out here you almost never see or hear about college sports. Sure, they will have huge games etc, but you have eight million people and probably less actual obsessed fans than the KC area does. I would say a lot less. You woudn't know Vtech is playing MD at Fed Ex Field even though 80k might show up. The rest of the city goes on as if nothing was going on.

[xenokc]

i don't know too many people into sports at all. that's probably because I'm not either but the point is that there are many many here who don't give a damn about sports and the topic rarely comes up.

i would say that kc metro is relatively more of a sports town than some other cities, but probably closer to average. many many here are completely uninterested, particularly those in the city core.

there was a report in the Star several years ago that said something to the effect that KC's arts/performance venues have several magnitudes more attendance than all pro/college sports attendance combined in KC area.

the OP was about KC being closed to outsiders, which isn't an issue in KC... not sure how the thread spun this way.

[TabulaRasa]

People are pretty into their KU/MU loyalty, from my observations (worth noting that I work with a majority of recent college graduates, and these are people for whom the college days are not yet a faint, nostalgic memory, however). Even people who are not alums of either institution seem to have a dog in the fight, which is bizarre to me, but whatever. The biggest plasterer of KU memorabilia, and somebody I may have never once seen without a Jayhawks hoodie or t-shirt at my workplace is a guy whose sole collegiate credentials are an associate's from MCC Longview (the local community college system in the KC metro).

As a casual sports fan at best, I've always kinda internally rolled my eyes at the braying fanatics whose life revolves around fill-in-the-blank team. While the KU/MU rivalry is big, I haven't noticed it to be nearly as pervasive once I get outside the kiddos I work with...past midthirties, it gets way less pronounced (of those people, they're much more likely to be all about their Chiefs-ness, something I also could give a rip about). I've never been a "wave the flag for my teams" girl, just never cared that much. Will I go to a game and have a good time if invited? Sure. Other than that, don't care. Don't schedule my life around somebody's season, don't make it a point to hit all the televised games I can, just don't care that much. Does this make me different than a lot of the uber sportsfans around me? Sure...but I haven't noticed the MU/KU people here being any more annoying or ridiculous than the U of I fans at home.

As a transplant to both Kansas City and to Missouri, who attended neither the University of Missouri or the University of Kansas, and who expresses no random loyalty to either school, am I a social pariah?

No. Nobody cares.

Is KC welcoming to transplants? In my experience, yes. I moved here from northern Illinois, my SO from New York by way of Texas. Neither of us found it unfriendly, difficult to get to know people, standoffish, or cliquish in any way. We've had no problems joining in various civic groups and social circles, despite the fact that SO is a grad of the SUNY system, I'm an alum from a small private liberal arts college in Minnesota, and neither of us cares who wins the Border War game (although we gladly take a day trip to Lawrence now and then to scour used bookstores and eat hot artichoke dip while tossing a pint back at Free State Brewery).

[shindig]

You'll be fine no matter if you didn't attend KU or MU. It's not as bad as kcmo states (he just hates everything Kansas and KU for that matter). You probably will see more KU flags and clothing because as everyone knows it's the premier University in the region . Since KC doesn't have an NBA team, watching KU basketball is the closest you'll get to see future NBA hall of famers. It's a good rivalry and the people in KC embrace it.

BTW, If you decide to become a KU fan or just want a KU hat, don't wear it to a Royals game or kcmo will blow a gasket....he'll probably even make you take it off, burn it, and buy you a Royals hat so you don't humiliate the city