Orange Is Back

A time warp enveloped my life Saturday. Pizza at Angelo’s. A Wichita Wings victory. Throw in some yogurt from TCBY and a VHS copy of The Goonies from Popingo Video and it might have been 1985.

Hartman Arena sits just off I-135, just down the street from the old barn that was the Kansas Coliseum. It can never be 1985 again and Andy Chapman isn’t going to lace up his cleats next weekend, but the old ghosts came alive Saturday night. If you were a schoolkid in Wichita in the 1980s then you understand. You understand what the Coliseum was like with 9,000 screaming fans. You know what it was like to see Chico Borja pump his arm after a goal. You remember the electricity in the air after Erik Rasmussen made four professional soccer players fall down on his way to a shot in the corner of the net.

Krazy Koob, or Tim Koob to the non-Wings world, is dressed in an orange outfit befitting the term “fanatic.” When he isn’t riling up the Orange Army he intently watches the play on the field.

“The Wings mean so much to me. Growing up as a young child I idolized Kim Roentved, Mike Dowler, Erik Rasmussen; all the greats. I’d roll the ball down the stairs and play like I was Mike Dowler. I grew up wanting to be part of the Wichita Wings. Here I am, at 46 years old, and I feel like I’m a part of it. It’s like a family,” Koob said.

As my wife, stepkids and I drove down the highway on the way to the game, I decided to play them the Maynard Ferguson version of “Gonna Fly Now,” better known as the theme song to Rocky. My wife’s not from Wichita and the kids are too young to know what’s up. I explained to them that this was how the players were introduced in the old days. When we pulled off the highway, I didn’t know what to expect. Would Wichita turn out for the Wings again? It wasn’t a sure thing. Not even longtime coach Roy Turner knew what to expect Saturday. But there I was, sitting in a line of cars, waiting to turn left onto 77^th Street. A good sign. And then I saw a parking lot filled to the brim, 50 minutes before game time. A line of people in the rain waiting to buy tickets. Another line of people waiting to enter the arena. Maybe you CAN go home again?

“It was exciting to see about five hundred people standing outside trying to get a ticket,” Tim Koob commented.

Wall-to-wall orange. I lost count of the retro Wings gear, much of it bought 35 years ago, kept in a closet somewhere. “Break glass in case of a Wings emergency.” And Mike Flynn did just that. The 85-year-old Wichitan sported his 1980s Wings jacket with pride. Liverpudlian Kevin Kewley was his favorite, but his wife quickly chimed in to let me know that Danish sensation Jorgen Kristensen was the real star to watch.

“My wife dragged me to the first game. And I thought maybe it would be alright. The next game we went I bought season tickets. They were a great inspiration to all of Wichita,” Flynn said.

New York City, Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, St. Louis, San Francisco…Wichita. One of these doesn’t fit. But there we were, fighting against the big boys in a major league sport on national television. That’s not nothing, as they say. It was Wichita’s big break. And then it went broke. But for a good solid decade-and-a-half it was something all of us could agree on. The men working on the line at Boeing, the rich housewives, the poor kids, the rich kids and all the kids in-between: we all loved the Wings. And we had the bumper stickers and cowbells to prove it.

Here we are again. Hartman Arena was packed. The place was just short of full. Not quite a sellout, but pretty darn close. The boys on the pitch (yeah, us rubes here in Wichita learned the correct European soccer terms a long time ago) aren’t English and Danish anymore. There’s a Brazilian flavor to this team. And this time the local lads on the team, many of whom learned to play because of those Danes and Englishmen, are just as good as the foreign players.

As I walk along the concourse, I spy a little boy wearing what must obviously be a 1980s-vintage Wings outfit. In my head, I wonder if it was worn by his father. Yes, indeed, his grandmother, Jeanelle Brown, confirms.

“It was actually a gift for my son Erik. We started going in ‘79. He was named after Erik Rasmussen. My co-workers got this for him. It was a place for family to come together and enjoy every single moment. Both of our kids played soccer all the way through college because of the Wings,” Brown said.

Wichita has the Wings in its blood. We just can’t quit ‘em. Let’s take this ride one more time.

Editor’s Note: Tim O’Bryhim helps out the Wichita Wings with their social media. The views expressed here are his own.