Alumni Club leader shares memories of good times in ‘EMAWstin’
For nearly eight years Cameron Banning ’14, has been the leader of the Austin K-Staters, a spirit club for the K-State Alumni Association. As the club leader, he has endeavored to spread as much purple pride as possible deep in the heart of Texas.
“We try to just reach out to everybody, so no one feels left out,” Banning said. “If I see anyone with purple on in Austin, and I know it's not TCU, I'll probably go up and talk to them and make sure they know about it. So, it's been really fun. I've enjoyed it. And it's just crazy. It seems like more K-Staters move here every day, which is cool.”
There are approximately 1,840 K-State alumni and friends living in the Austin, Texas, area, or “EMAWstin” as the club likes to call it. They even sell T-shirts and merch with the saying.
In Banning’s building alone there are at least two other K-Staters who happen to live there just by chance.
Banning said the club hosts watch parties for every football game and select basketball games. Additionally, when the ’Cats travel to local Texas schools you can find members of the “EMAWstin” crew there in purple to cheer them on, be it Baylor, TCU or Texas. Now they’ll add Houston to that list, hosting a tailgate before next year’s football game on Nov. 2.
One of his favorite moments as the club leader includes hosting out-of-town visitors for last year’s K-State vs Texas football game at a welcome party.
“That was really cool to see our home base bar just completely packed with purple,” he said. “We had those poor bartenders just exhausted by the end of the night.”
Another was the watch party during last year’s Elite Eight run in the men’s NCAA tournament.
“I think everybody hugged everybody when we won,” he said. “It didn't matter what year you graduated or your background, everyone was in purple, just having a great time. And obviously, that was a huge moment.”
At each watch party the club will play several K-State songs before the game starts, including Wabash Cannonball, the K-State Fight Song and the Alma Mater. The club’s bar of choice, The Pub, sports K-State flags and even serves Nancys on gamedays.
“The bartenders think it's hilarious,” he said. “They're like, ‘You guys really like pineapple juice in your beer?’ And we're say ‘We sure do.’ So that's been great to have that little taste of home as well.”
Banning said on more than one occasion they’ve had guests from other schools join their watch party including some University of Kansas supporters and Mizzou fans. The club shares the space with a University of Iowa alumni club. Banning said the only people who truly seem confused by this wear burnt orange and cheer for the Longhorns.
“It's basically just a Midwest hoedown every weekend,” he said.
In addition to the watch parties the club hosts summer happy hours. They’ve also attended Round Rock Express games when they play Royals affiliate teams together. Banning said the networking and community building opportunities within the club make it worth participating.
“They've become lifelong friends,” he said, noting that the club group text has more than 30 people.
Duties as a club leader includes working with other local K-Staters including Gina Kirkwood ’13 to coordinate the events, posting to their social media accounts to create some “fear of missing out” and working with the Alumni Association to communicate with alumni about the local upcoming events.
Banning said he’d encourage anyone living outside Manhattan to get involved with a local alumni club. If there isn’t one in your area see if you can start one.
“I definitely hope more people will step up and be club leaders,” he said. “Because it is really awesome. It's really rewarding. Every time people come, I'm so glad they came to a watch party and so glad I got to meet them. The people you meet, I'm always shocked with what connections they have. Obviously, I don't get paid to be a club leader and it has been worth every single moment.”