Wednesday night K-State's men's basketball team took on KU in their conference season opener. A game that ended in a bitter 67-49 loss for the Wildcats was being watched over 500 miles away in Dallas, Texas, at a watch party thrown by the K-State Alumni Association for K-State fans, alumni and students living in, or traveling to Dallas for the AT&T Cotton Bowl.
?Fox and Hound English Pub & Grille, located in Dallas, is a common location for K-State alumni and fans to gather and watch K-State sports in an exciting and fun environment. For over 15 years the bar has held watch parties in which, on game days, the bar is flooded with purple.
The K-State Alumni Association is the group responsible for holding these watch parties, and for K-State alumni living in Dallas, it is a great way to continue their support of K-State sports.
Audrey Mross graduated from K-State in 1980, majored in business and is currently is a lead volunteer of the Alumni Association for K-State in the Dallas area.?
Mross puts together events, like the watch parties, where alumni can get together despite no longer living near the K-State campus.
She said this year, since Kansas State Football beat all three Big 12 schools from the state of Texas, has been especially fun for K-State fans living in Dallas.
"It's been very exciting because, when you live in Texas and you work with people who went to Texas schools, like us, they are proud of their schools, and it's just been so much fun to walk in to work on Mondays and smile because your team won."
Joel Hodges, general manager of Fox and Hound English Pub & Grille, said he enjoys hosting K-State fans at his bar, and enjoys the atmosphere it brings.
"I like having them here in a fun, family atmosphere." Hodges said about the K-State fans scattered around his bar whose eyes were fixed on the televisions.? "It's a great place where we can watch the game and have a good time."
Hodges explained that Fox and Hound is always welcoming to the K-State Alumni Association.
"We do it all season long, it doesn't matter what sport they want." Hodges said. "The head person of the group will call me and say, ?We've got a group coming in for the basketball game can you set it aside?' and, you know, I actually have a lot more involvement with my K-State group than any of my other Alumni groups. I see K-State and their loyal fans a lot more often than I do my other groups."
Those loyal K-State fans Hodeges described are many, and K-State alumni, Todd Fecht, who majored in economics with a minor in finance with the class of 1991, has lived in Dallas for 20 years with his wife, Tricia, also a K-State graduate, and their three sons. Fecht is currently the CEO of First National Mutual Group, which is headquartered in Dallas.
Fecht said he has spent many years watching K-State games with his family at Fox and Hound and enjoys having a place in Dallas to meet up with other alumni.
Fecht is an avid K-State football fan, but even more so, he is an avid Bill Snyder fan.
"I hope he retires at 104," Fecht said.? "He's one of the best things that's ever happened to Kansas State University with his integrity, compassion for the student athlete and striving to win."
Fecht said he began attending K-State in 1987, the year before Coach Snyder took over K-State's football program.
"I was one of those crazy K-State 500's who was still there when the clock said 0:0 in the fourth quarter." Fecht said referring to 1987, before Coach Snyder's influence on the football program began filling the stadium with well over the "K-State 500" fans.
While many people will be attending the Cotton Bowl, Fox and Hound realizes there are those unable to attend the game in Cowboys Stadium.
"I know it is in town," Hodges said about the Cotton Bowl, "but I know a lot of people may not get to go to the game, but just want to come to Dallas for the atmosphere, and they'll come out and find a good place to watch it. Or, not everyone got their tickets in time and they need a place to go root on their team with their fellow alumni."
Fox and Hound English Pub & Grille will be holding a watch party at 7:00 PM, Friday, January 6, as K-State takes on Arkansas for the AT&T Cotton Bowl.
Also, the next day, Saturday, January 7, Fox and Hound will hold another watch party for the K-State basketball?game against Missouri at 12:30 PM.
?"We've got 10 different cable boxes and 45 different TV's so the game will at least be on one," Hodges said with a smile. "When K-State wins, we win."
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