Shuttle are, left to right, Tom ’59/67 and Joan ’55 Gilley,
Bailey Beets, Eric Fahnestock, Brianna Furman, Eddie
Fahnestock, George Fahnestock ’69 and Dave Spafford,
the associate athletic director at WSU.
As WSU’s men’s basketball team was battling its way through the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament in St. Louis, Shocker fans of all ages were enjoying themselves not only at the games but also at pep rallies hosted by the WSU Alumni Association.
“We had a fun time,” says Bobby Gandu ’02, the association’s director of alumni chapters and societies. “We had great food, great fun and great basketball. What more could you ask for?”
The pregame fun was all at TGI Friday’s downtown, an establishment that got into the spirit of the games as Shocker supporters by not only offering special drinks — The Black and Gold Pride, The Shocker Shooter and the Wu Slamma Jamma, for instance — but also by running a red-striped Shocker Shuttle flying Wichita State flags from the restaurant to the Savvis Center, the site of the MVC’s own unique brand of March Madness.
By the way, the Shockers won their first game in the Valley tournament, beating Bradley, 70-66, and advancing to the semifinals, where they lost a heartbreaker to the nationally ranked Creighton Blue Jays (No. 19), 70-69.
