The tradition of camping out for KU home basketball games began in the mid-80s when KU students lined up outside Allen Fieldhouse on gameday, hours before tipoff. 

Prescott Deckinger | Multimedia Journalist

People on campus would walk by the growing mass of students and ask what they were doing, and students would respond, “We’re waiting for the game!” The lines and waits grew longer and longer, and the more important the game, the longer each became, eventually leading to overnight camping.

After a few semesters, camping became a general practice on campus and undergraduates implemented a student-led system to keep everybody honest. 

Only the most willing students would brave the cold winter nights and frigid temperatures of November, October, December, and January, to ensure they could snag front-row seats. 

Around the mid-90s, KU Athletics feared for the safety of students staying outdoors in freezing weather, so they allowed students to camp inside Allen Fieldhouse from open to close.

From that point on, camping grew even more popular because students could camp within the warm confines of the arena.

The good old days

The procedure of camping has evolved over 40 years, but the treasured memories of camping’s past still resonate in students who attended classes on campus decades ago. 

Curtis Marsh, a student who attended KU from 1987-1992, and served as the Director of KU Info for nearly 15 years, fondly remembers the experience of the early days of camping. 

“One of the things that I’ll always say was super cool about the old way of camping was that it became an event-–a party,” Marsh said. 

“Sometimes, the players would get done with practice and they’d walk through the area we were  camping in and we’d get to know them.”

Marsh said he is grateful for all the great memories he made during his tenure as a student, and still attends Jayhawk games as a season ticket holder.

“There are lots of cool elements of the evolution of camping, but it’s fun to think that it just started because some students were willing to just sit down for several hours before the game in order to get the best seats,” he said. 

Modern KUMBB camping

Students still vie for the best seats today, but what does the camping process look like now?

Today, camping commences the morning after a KU home basketball game, and thousands of students congregate at the gate 21 doors of Allen Fieldhouse at 6 a.m. to sign their groups up for lottery. 

When groups sign up, they receive random numbers that determine when they’ll pick their lottery numbers and take their seats in the arena. Every fifth member in a group picks a poker chip out of a cinch bag when their number is called, and groups are limited to 30 members.

The number on the poker chip determines the order in line each group is placed to enter Allen Fieldhouse on gameday. After every group picks their number, camping begins, but some students call the experience by a different name. 

“I thought this would be like real camping,” Dillon Fahrer, a freshman at KU said. “It’s really just a glorified stakeout.”

To camp, at least one member from each group must stay in Allen Fieldhouse during camping hours, which are 6 a.m. – 10 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. – 10 p.m. on weekends. 

Group members rotate camping shifts with one another throughout the day, and roll call occurs every hour to ensure a group member is always present in the building.

Roll is called off a sheet that includes every group name and their corresponding spot in line.

If a member of a group is not present during roll call, their group moves to the back of the line. 

“I would be outraged if a member of my group didn’t show up for roll, especially because we have a top ten spot in line,” Makayla Naybel, a junior at KU said. 

Three hours before game time, final roll is announced, and student doors open ninety minutes prior to tipoff. The students fortunate enough to pick number one at the lottery are the first through the gates, elated at the chance to claim front-row seats to cheer on their Jayhawks. 

“You wear crimson and blue on your sleeve and you want to be in the front row screaming loud and showing your school spirit,” Shayna Pendleton, a sophomore at KU said. 

The tradition of camping has changed since its inception in the mid-1980s, but students will forever enjoy the thrill of camping out for one of the most storied programs in college basketball history. 

For students interested in learning more about the tradition of camping, check out Curtis Marsh’s book, KU-phoria, from the KU Bookstore or visit KU’s camping website.