By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
Even the extreme heat bearing down on Kansas could not stop the smiles and laughter as student-athletes, cheerleaders, band members and staff descended upon Hays in anticipation of the 50th-annual Shrine Bowl.
The football game is set for a 7 p.m. kickoff on Lewis Field Stadium on the Fort Hays State University campus, but events will begin long before, with a Hays Chamber and Nex Tech Wireless event planned to open the weekend at 9 a.m. Friday at the Nex-Tech Wireless office at 1101 E. 43rd
“We really want to bring the locals out and let them know what we're doing and kind of get everything cranked up a little bit here in Hays,” said Shrine Bowl of Kansas executive director B.J. Harris.
The Kansas Shrine Bowl Golf Tournament also will begin at 9 a.m. Friday.
“That's one of our big events,” Harris said.
More than 1,200 people will then attend a sold-out Birthday Banquetat 5:30 p.m. in the FHSU Memorial Union.
“Our keynote speaker will be Paul Coffman,” Harris said. “He's a western Kansas guy who went on to have a lot of success in the NFL and is in the Ring of Honor for the Green Bay Packers. In fact, he can't stay for the game because he's got to go play golf in the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame Golf Tournament on Sunday.”
Along with his notable football career, Coffman participated in the first Shrine Bowl in 1974.
Saturday morning events will start with a Shriner's Parade on Main from 17th to Fourth Street.
“The Parade Marshal for that parade will be Barry Sanders, who was going into the Kansas Shrine Bowl Hall of Fame later that night,” Harris said. “We're very excited to have Barry in town. He played the 1986 Kansas Shrine Bowl and then obviously went on to have an NFL Hall of Fame career.”
Outside of the well-known participant, he said a Shrine Parade is “something to behold.”
“Everything you think about the Shrine, you get to see in action,” Harris said. “In that parade, the funny cars, the little things they do. Guys spraying people with water. It's just a completely different parade than kind of your typical parade.”
Following the parade, a pep rally is planned in Municipal Park.
“We want to encourage people to come down there,” Harris said. “The boys will be signing autographs for the fans and for their families, and we'll sell them programs and things.”
That afternoon an alumni kickoff event is planned at the Fort Tavern and Patio Bar, 109 W. Seventh.
“We’ve got a lot of guys coming back, a couple of NFL players that have played in our game that are coming back for this game, and an NFL coach is going to be attending this who played their game as well,” Harris said.
“We're trying to get them to come back and share that with us. Because when you live it at 18 years old, you kind of forget about it. And we want those guys to understand we're still doing it 50 years later. We're still doing what you did in 1973.”
The last event before kickoff is tailgating on the east lawn outside the stadium and will feature family-friendly activities.
“And then in the pregame festivities, we will induct Barry Sanders and coach Doug Burkholder in the Kansas Shrine Bowl Hall of Fame right before kickoff, and then the 50th Kansas Shrine Bowl will be underway,” Harris said.
While the community events will center around the game, the larger goal is one of philanthropy.
“We try to say we want to have fun and help kids while having fun,” Harris said. “That's what Shriners have been doing for a long, long time. Over 100 years, actually, as in philanthropy.”
“Ultimately, the background and the foundation of everything we do is for the kids, and you'll hear that if you're out in the game, you'll hear it from the kids from our band, you'll hear it from the kids, from our cheerleaders, you'll hear it on breakdowns from our football players.”
And he said the game has a larger mission than just the events.
“We try to make sure that they understand that it's for bigger than them,” Harris said. “One of the things I love about our game is it's one of the few times that you're going to play a football game where the outcome really doesn't matter. In fact, last year we ended in a tie. And that was a good example of it really is just for the kids who are out there to play and put on a show and raise as much money as possible.”
Making it all possible are players, students and staff from around the state after year-long planning.
“It actually starts during the football season,” Harris said. “As far as our players are concerned, in about week five, coaches can start nominating the players they think are worthy for the Kansas Shrine Bowl.”
Players are 2023 high school graduates.
“We'll do all those nominations, usually at around 400 to 450 nominations from across the state,” Harris said. “We narrow that down to 80 players, 40 on the west and 40 on the east.”
Those selections are made up of choices from 30-50 media outlets throughout the state before a selection committee narrows the field further.
“It's kind of convoluted, but I think it gives us the best spread,” Harris said. “We look at it geographically as much as possible to try to get good representation throughout the state of Kansas as well. But it really does come down to the media selection and then the coaches making their picks.”
Alongside the players, students also gather to perform in band and cheerleading.
We have an 185-strong band and an almost 200-strong cheerleading squad, Harris said.
“When they perform at halftime, there'll be almost 400 high school band and cheerleaders on the field performing a joint routine which is just very special and a nice example of the arts in our state of Kansas,” he said.
With participants from across Kansas set to participate in the events, Hays will be well represented.
“We've got a couple of players from Hays High School,” Harris said, “and we also got the head coach from Hays High School.”
Tony Crough will serve as head coach for the West squad after serving as an assistant coach last year.
“That was voted on by the guys who are with him all year last year,” Harris said. “They felt that he would be the best leader, and it was very serendipitous it was in his hometown here, where he's coaching.”
“And Tony played in our game in 1999, as well, so he's a former player, and now he's going to be a former head coach.”
Thomas More Prep-Marian Kade Harris also will help as manager this year after suffering a knee injury that sidelined him from the game.
While the organization does much of the leg work to bring the events to their host communities, Harris said city and FHSU officials have been instrumental in planning and organizing this year’s event.
“We rely a lot on our local host cities,” Harris said.
He said Janet Kuhn, Hays Convention and Visitors Bureau, along with executive director Melissa Dixon were key to this year’s events.
“They got us here,” Harris said.
He also noted FHSU officials were vital to the effort.
“It's an intimate enough campus that everything's fairly close, and it allows us to put a lot more stuff on campus this year because of that,” Harris said.
While the weekend exhibition is for a good cause, for the coaches and players, the game is serious business for those players and coaches involved.
“You get football coaches around a football field, they're going to be football coaches,” Harris said. “So that first, and that's fine. That's what we want them to do.”
But it’s all in good fun, he said, with lots of good-natured heckling behind the scenes as they prepare for the game.
“When they get here on Saturday, and the ball goes up the air, it's a football game. They want to win, and they want to put the best product forward,” Harris said. “It's real football when it comes to Saturday, for sure.”
Most importantly, everyone involved is part of a long-term legacy of giving to children in need.
“We're celebrating a big, big moment this year with our 50th,” Harris said. “Since 1974, they've been playing a football game to raise money for Shriners Children's (hospital), and since that time, we've raised over $3.7 million for the hospital system, and getting Kansas kids to the hospital to get treatment.”
“And we'll see some of those patients throughout the week here and see the impact that we're making on those lives and try to convey that to our players as well. But ultimately, our goal is to raise and make the biggest impact possible.”
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