2022 in Review: Favorite Moments from Across Kansas Athletics (2024)

The year 2022 ended up being one of the most eventful calendar years for Kansas Athletics that we have seen in a very long time. From a resurgence in the women's basketball program and a national championship in basketball to the accelerated return of the football program to respectability, there were plenty of individual moments along the way that are worth remembering.

Over the next week, we will be looking at various aspects of the athletic department and our coverage of everything Kansas to share with you some of our favorite moments. First, we looked at our favorite basketball moments. Yesterday, we focused on football. Today, we are grabbing the rest of our favorite moments around the rest of the Athletics Department.

Kyle Davis

I’m going sentimental here. My oldest son is six this year and this is the year he really started paying attention to KU sports, especially basketball. He knows all the players and his guy is Dajuan Harris. So being able to take him to the championship parade and his first football and basketball games has made 2022 a special year.

Derek Noll

Remy Martin’s redemption tour was pretty amazing to see. But more amazing, and one that will stick for a long time and played out over the long run was the one David McCormack experienced. It’s been a long time (ever?) since a Kansas player has taken the kind of abuse that Big Dave had to take over his final three years at KU (and especially during his senior campaign). But the man is made of sterner stuff than most and he never let it get to him. Bill Self never wavered in his belief that McCormack was the centerpiece and perhaps the key component to a deep run in the tournament. Bill was right and Dave was clutch. He was the man with the national title game in his hands in the last few possessions and boy did he come up huge.

Lucas Murphy

My favorite other moment is Coach Leipold and his staff turning around a program that had been abysmal for so many years. They were the running joke of power 5 football. The turnstile of coaches that were believed to be the ones to guide the ship in the right direction and would only sink the boat more. That all stopped when the head coach from Buffalo arrived, well…the second one. Coach Leipold and his staff came in and started from the foundation creating a brand new culture and instilling that into the players. This mindset started with the leaders and would trickle down through the entire program whether that was in the weight room, on the field, or in the classroom there were expectations. We were able to witness this firsthand when the KU athletic department released the series “The Blueprint” covering the football team. The Jayhawks would go 6-6 in the regular season and would attend their first bowl game since I was in high school and that has been way too long. I am excited like many Jayhawk football fans for where this team is headed and we have one of the best now driving the ship.

Brendan Dzwierzynski

January 22, 2022. That’s the day Kansas fell behind K-State by 16 points at halftime. It was the first game after Bill Self Sr. passed away. It was also the day that the Jayhawks showed the heart and toughness that defined their run to a national championship. I was lucky enough to be there covering the game, and it truly felt like something magical, truly special, was happening. The younger Self has spoken about that comeback in a similar vein, and you can understand why. A rivalry win with your superstars, specifically the superstar of that team, Ochai Agbaji, erupting late will always feel special. But given everything else going on with the program and its coach at the time, that one stands out more than most thrilling KU comebacks.

Andy Mitts

I’m going to go completely off the wall and pick the amazing run for the entire athletic department under Travis Goff. I mean just look at this list:

• The football team turnaround.
• The national championship for the basketball team.
• Volleyball capitalizing on a surprise run to the Sweet 16 to secure a great recruiting class
• Women’s basketball advancing to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
• Hiring of Dan Fitzgerald after Rich Price retired from the baseball program.
• The NIL strategy that has Kansas as one of the leaders in the space for their athletes
• College Gameday
• Football stadium renovation announcement.
• Extension of Lance Leipold’s contract.

And that list is by no means exhaustive. Seeing competent leadership at the top of the department has been exhilarating.

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