All session Big 12 Tournament ticket giveaway - here's how you win

[Jnecker4cy]

Great Stories by all and I know all these great Cyclone Fans and their children deserve to win these tickets and great opportunity given to all of us by another great Cyclone.

My son is turning 12 on this Friday, it would be an awesome birthday gift to give him for one heck of a cyclone fan coming from a great Cyclone Family. My son could say a few things early on in his life, the First was the ISU Fight Song, the second was "Hawks Suck". Some may think that is not all that cool, but I come from only a Cyclone Family not growing up in Iowa, so none of us were ever Hawk Fans.

We go to many events as a family as we love our Cyclones, I have seen my son scream and cheer in Joy at many Cyclone events over his 11 plus years already and I have seen him shed tears of sadness when the Cyclones have lost close games both in person and on TV. (Also when Georges fouled out against Virginia last year). It would be awesome and special to be able to take him to KC for the tournament next week, and bring back some great memories when my father and I attended a Big 8 tourney back in the day. I would love to share that experience with my son.

IF we were lucky enough to win these tickets we would cherish the opportunity and the event that is the Cyclone Swarm in KC. We hopefully would also be lucky enough to cheer alongside the individual giving these tickets away.

Go Cyclones

 

[cyclonestunners]

What a fantastic idea! Thank you so much! I was originally submitting this as a surprise for my dad. But as I thought about it, I decided since we have shared so many Cyclone experiences together, we should submit this together. The first paragraph is mine, the second is from my dad:

The tickets would be special for me because the drive to Kansas City would be almost as rewarding as the tournament itself. My strongest memories with my dad were not only the Cyclone games, but the driving to and from the games. It started when my dad and I snuck away from a family camping trip and drove two hours to watch the Iowa State women play Rutgers in the 1998 NCAA tournament. He spent the drive back consoling me over my first Cyclone gut punch. The driving continued when we decided to keep our season football tickets when I went to Grinnell College. I didn’t have a car, so my dad would drive six hours (With a full load of laundry, of course!) to and from Grinnell every home football weekend ensure we wouldn’t miss a game. The talks we had in the car are some of my favorite memories I have with him. I later went to grad school at the University of Iowa, and we made sure I escaped the enemy territory whenever possible to drive back to Ames for home games. Now, I live in Minnesota, and I don't let six hours of driving stop me from keeping our season tickets together. I do miss the drives together, though. I look forward to the opportunity to start a new tradition by once again driving with him to see the Cyclones win at Hilton South!


My son and I have enjoyed and bonded over Cyclone sports for years. The games themselves and our often long drives to the games have given us memories that we still laugh over. I remember Thanksgiving in the northern Minnesota woods in 2001 and the two of us driving down dirt forest roads looking for the perfect spot for radio reception so we could hear the rescheduled ISU-Iowa football game. We cheered ourselves hoarse watching the ISU Woman's basketball team (Frese, Taylor, Welle) beat number 1 Texas Tech. We saw ISU out-field goal Iowa on a beautiful September day, and have watched many amazing Hilton Magic inspired victories over top 10 teams. We do miles and miles of driving to and from Cyclone games. We relive old games, talk about the next one, and build our hopes for next year. And oh yeah...we plan for our dream trip to the Big 12 tournament (and some day a trip to see ISU in the Final Four!) Gooooooooo Cyclones!!!

 

[cyfan27]

My family has been lifelong Cyclone fans and have never been to the Big 12 tourney. Over the years college sports, jobs, and family vacations have always prevented us from attending. At the age of 48 I finally decided it was time to take my father who turned 81 this year. Additionally, we are going to take my 13 year old son so we have 3 generations going. However, it wasn't an easy plan to pull together. We began by getting permission from my mother in law to attend my wife's family annual vacation a few days late. Once that was approved we booked my wife and daughter flights out of Des Moines and our flights out of Kansas City. As excited as I am I think my dad and son are even more excited and I am looking forward to creating new memories with my son and dad.

 

[cyclonpediaJoe]

Guys! I'm at work reading this, come on!

 

[ImJustKCClone]

We still work for a living here, so would be unable to use the tickets...but kudos to the donor! Your generosity makes you a winner in my book.

That said, I hope whoever wins the tickets has a truly fantastic time, and gets to see the Cyclones play in the championship!

Go Cyclones!!!

 

[lmw01490]

I posted this on the press release rather than the thread...so transferring over if I can:

I moved to KC in the fall of 2014 and with the mix of ever-so-rapidly growing reputation of ISU Men's Basketball and weekday games, it was almost impossible to get to Ames for a game. I had always heard great things about the Big 12 Tournament in KC, so I invited my dad and brother to visit for the weekend in 2015. We ended up with great tickets to watch the Friday evening session, but the lack of available tickets for Saturday's Championship game led us to watch the game at Kelly's in Westport. It was so much fun, and the massive amount of ISU fans in KC really made me feel like I was back in Iowa. It was such a great weekend that Dad told me that he looked forward to coming down in 2016, even if we weren't going to be able to get tickets. We did, but unfortunately the first game didn't pan out as most ISU fans expected. We had our football tailgating crew in town for the weekend and we were able to make the most of it, even with the 79-76 loss to OU.

When tournament plans started getting ironed out for this year, all my friends were asking if Dad was coming down again. It was great knowing that not only did Dad enjoy the full Big 12 Tourney experience, but that my friends had the same amount of fun when he is with us. When I called Dad a few weeks ago asking if he was planning on coming down, he didn't think he was going to make it. While our tradition is only a few years young, it won't quite feel like the Big 12 Tournament without him running around and causing trouble in KC with me!

 

[AdamJGray]

Thanks to everyone who submitted an entry. I really enjoyed reading through this thread and seeing what Iowa State means to so many of you. A lot of the stories reminded me of my family and how some of our best memories were centered around Iowa State athletics.

The CF crew is now reading through them all and will announce the winner on the radio tonight at 6 pm. Tune in on 1460 KXNO or stop by Benchwarmers.

 

[CycloneBBFan]

Thanks to everyone who submitted an entry. I really enjoyed reading through this thread and seeing what Iowa State means to so many of you. A lot of the stories reminded me of my family and how some of our best memories were centered around Iowa State athletics.

The CF crew is now reading through them all and will announce the winner on the radio tonight at 6 pm. Tune in on 1460 KXNO or stop by Benchwarmers.

Many thanks to the CF staff for holding this event. Glad to hear a young father is able to take his son to the tournament. Hopefully, you guys can find sponsors to hold this event every year. Take care, cheer loud, and Go Cyclones!

 

[bellzisu]

Many thanks to the CF staff for holding this event. Glad to hear a young father is able to take his son to the tournament. Hopefully, you guys can find sponsors to hold this event every year. Take care, cheer loud, and Go Cyclones!

Who did win. Wasn't able to listen

 

[CycloneBBFan]

Who did win. Wasn't able to listen

Sorry didn't quite catch the name on that.

 

[AdamJGray]

@ISU_phoria was the winner!

It was a tough call as there were so many deserving candidates and we really struggled while discussing this in the Cyclone Fanatic slack account.

Thanks again to the poster on the site who was kind enough to give away these tickets. One of the many great Cyclone fans out there!

 

[cyhiphopp]

I've never had the opportunity to go to the Big XII tournament, but would love to take my son.

Every year, I take my kids to one football and one basketball game; we live in Minnesota. This past year, we had to miss the football game because my son made it to the championship game for his 6th grade football league (which happened to be the same day as the KSU game that we had bought tickets for - so we gave them to another cyclone family to use).

My kids (& I) were bummed to miss the game, but excited that my son's team won the championship of the entire Twin Cities North Metro area. However, my kids were still excited to go on our annual basketball game trip to watch this great group of ISU seniors.

Fast-forward a few months and I had to leave my job (won't get into the details) and decided to try to start my own company. But, with no income (my wife stays home with our kids), I had to cancel the trip to watch the basketball game too. ugh!

I have two sisters in Kansas City and my best friend lives in Lawrence, so we'd have a place to stay to reduce costs. So, a trip to the Big XII tournament would be so sweet for my son and me since we weren't able to make it this past year at all and depending on how the job goes, might not be able to go again for a few years.

Regardless - I am grateful for the generosity of the great Cyclone fan willing to help out a fellow Cyclone family. Such a cool idea!

Winner winner Cyclone basketball dinner!

 

[Rossmt]

Yeah, after reading ISU_phoria's post I'm glad I didn't get them, he is way more deserving than me. Hope you have a blast man!

 

[Clonefan32]

I was totally going to post something earlier, but all of you people deserve the tickets way more than I do.

 

[huntt26]

This was an awesome idea - enjoy the tournament! Go Cyclones!

 

[Castillo85]

Such an awesome give away! I'd love to take my daughter to the Sprint Center to cheer on the Cyclones. ISU Men's Basketball has always been mother/son for us. As a single mom, it was important for us to have this time. Now it's my daughter's turn! Go Cyclones!

 

[cyowan]

I've never had the opportunity to go to the Big XII tournament, but would love to take my son.

Every year, I take my kids to one football and one basketball game; we live in Minnesota. This past year, we had to miss the football game because my son made it to the championship game for his 6th grade football league (which happened to be the same day as the KSU game that we had bought tickets for - so we gave them to another cyclone family to use).

My kids (& I) were bummed to miss the game, but excited that my son's team won the championship of the entire Twin Cities North Metro area. However, my kids were still excited to go on our annual basketball game trip to watch this great group of ISU seniors.

Fast-forward a few months and I had to leave my job (won't get into the details) and decided to try to start my own company. But, with no income (my wife stays home with our kids), I had to cancel the trip to watch the basketball game too. ugh!

I have two sisters in Kansas City and my best friend lives in Lawrence, so we'd have a place to stay to reduce costs. So, a trip to the Big XII tournament would be so sweet for my son and me since we weren't able to make it this past year at all and depending on how the job goes, might not be able to go again for a few years.

Regardless - I am grateful for the generosity of the great Cyclone fan willing to help out a fellow Cyclone family. Such a cool idea!

In the middle of all the glory that this weekend was, I couldn't help but think that you and your son were probably enjoying it even more. Hopefully the trip went well and we have a new young lifelong Cyclone in your son. Would love to hear how it went and if he enjoyed it as much as we all hope he did. What a great gift and I'm glad it went to such a deserving fan!

 

[ISU_phoria]

Thank you. We had a great time! My kids are proudly wearing their Big XII champions shirts today!

I am truly honored by the generosity of the family who gave them & was fortunate to be able to thank the guy in person. In the moment though I should have offered to buy him a few drinks and regret not doing so!

So, whoever you are on this board, please PM me your contact information.

This weekend was a gift & I am so thankful. We had a blast and hope to be able to pay it forward to another deserving Fanatic in the near future!

I'll post a picture when I'm not on mobile.