Memories...

The Big 12 Tournament is in Kansas City this week. The Big 12 tournament brings back memories and provides the opportunity to make new ones. I remember when Shauna was a senior in high school, the tournament (Big 8, back then) was held at Kemper Arena. Shauna's mom released her from school early so that we could attend the early session games. Shauna and I drove down to the Kemper, bought tickets from scalpers, and spent the day watching basketball together. To this day, at tourney time, we still reflect back on the fun that we had that day.

The first year the Big 12 tournament was brought to the Sprint Center, I pulled Marshall out of school so that we could go together. We spent the morning in the Power and Light District attending the fan-fest. Marshall chose to eat at Famous Dave's BBQ. I remember sitting down and having "lunch" at 10am so that we could be done in time to see tip-off at 11:30am. Marshall and I talked, ate kettle corn, drank slushies, and watched some great basketball.

This year, Marshall had testing on Wednesday and Thursday, I was unable to pull him out of school to attend the morning games. When he got home from school on Thursday, I surprised him with tickets to the evening games. After walking around the Power & Light District, taking in all the fan activities, we made our way inside the arena to our seats. Our seats were located in the last row of the upper level.

During warm-ups, a representative from Phillips 66 came and told us that we had been chosen as the Move of the Game. The representative upgraded our seats to center court, 6 rows off of the floor.

We were given a backpack with special shirts, hats, and lanyards. During the under 16 minute time out, we stood up and were recognized on the JUMBO TRON.


The seats were incredible and the whole experience was absolutely amazing. I told Marshall that I am 35 years old and have never had seats that were at center-court, and 6 rows back. It truly was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

What more could a dad ask for? Special time with his son, and center court seats to MIZZOU getting drilled by Texas A&M. What a perfect evening!

Sterling


Special thanks to Phillips 66 for upgrading our seats!