DALLAS, Texas — Like many Kansas players, tight end Jimmay Mundine became caught in the crush of fans after the Jayhawks upset West Virginia last November to snap a 27-game Big 12 skid.
When the goal posts came down, it officially elevated to a next-level celebration.
“I was like, ‘What is going on?'” Mundine recalled Monday at Big 12 media days. “It was nice to see all that emotion. Then I heard the fans carrying the goal posts and saying ‘Come on, we’re going to the lake!'”
As in Potter Lake, where the goal posts wound up being deposited. By that point, Mundine and linebacker Ben Heeney were in the locker room whooping it up with teammates, though both couldn’t wait to watch YouTube videos of the splashdown.
(A lifelong KU fan, Heeney had witnessed a similar dunking as a high school student in 2005 after the Jayhawks ended a 36-year losing streak to Nebraska. “Everyone rushed on the field just like we did against West Virginia,” he said, “so I had gotten to experience that as a fan.”)
Until the 31-19 win over WVU, Kansas was coming perilously close to surpassing Baylor’s 29-game league slide. With the monkey off the Jayhawks’ backs, what was the postgame aftermath in Lawrence?
“Oh, man, we partied big,” Heeney said. “It gets old hearing about the losing streak.”
Amid the energetic outpouring that engulfed the town, Mundine said the players sensed a relief.
“It was just cool to not be down when you go back home to your family and have to hear them say, ‘It will be OK.’ It was nice to see them smile.”