Bracket Chatter trophy, which she was awarded for having filled out the
most complete NCAA men’s basketball tournament bracket at the group’s
last Bracket Chatter event. Courtney M. Marshall, right, WSUAA president
and CEO, stands ready to collect the group’s newly completed bracket
prognostications for the 2017 tournament.
Spirits ran high with members of the WSU Alumni Association’s Women United for the Shockers group, along with their NCAA basketball-savvy guests and Shocker hoops play-by-play broadcast veteran Mike Kennedy ’71, during the March 10 Bracket Chatter get-together at AJ’s Sports Grill at The Alley.
Held a day after Selection Sunday, the Women United (WU) event featured great food and drink, including special WU-tinis, hors d’oeuvres and AJ’s own famed pizza.
But the main attraction was the expert advice on how to best fill out the 2017 NCAA men’s basketball tournament bracket provided by Kennedy, the award-winning sports broadcaster who has been the “voice of the Shockers” for more than four decades now.
Bonnie Bing Honeyman ’70/76, working with her husband Dick ’61, strove to retain the title of WU Bracket Chatter champion for her winning effort in the group’s last competition, which was for the 2015 NCAA tournament. But that was not to be. After the 2017 season of March Madness concluded, with the Shockers reaching NCAA tournament second-round play before losing to the Kentucky Wildcats, a new Bracket Chatter champ was revealed: Aimee Shank.
hoops knowledge with Bracket Chatter
attendees, who are having some serious
fun vying for the event trophy.
Suzanne Luginbill ’76 took home the first WU Bracket Chatter trophy in 2014. In addition to Shank and the Honeymans, other Bracket Chatter attendees vying for this season’s trophy were Paula Feist and Dan Alefs, Pamela Clancy Ammar ’80, Rick Clark, Nancy and Doug Blackman, Kathy and Mike ’77 Burrus, John Carnahan, Janie Carney, Diane Cline, Gloria Farha Flentje, Jack Focht, Debbie Haynes ’76, Joy ’00 and Brian ’96 Heinrichs, Don Luellen, Alberta and Bernie ’61 Nichols, Tony Pollock, Lynn ’64/92 and Don ’59 Stephan, Alissa ’86 and Dan Unruh ’86, and Sherl and Tony Weatherbee.
Women United is a group of Shocker supporters – 98 founding members strong – who recognize the importance of the WSUAA and its mission of service to Wichita State and its alumni. Members share a simple goal: to build and grow a lasting endowment that will help fund WSUAA operations and programming – and to have fun doing it.
“This group is vitally important to the growth of the alumni association and our outreach and programming in alumni affairs,” says Courtney M. Marshall, WSUAA president and CEO. “But as crucial as Women United’s goal is to our organization, what always strikes me the most about this group is the members themselves. When they get together for an occasion like Bracket Chatter – what an amazingly fun and energetic group of Shockers!
