Former University of Kansas forward Perry Ellis said farewell to the university in a letter titled, "Thank you, Kansas."
"As you can tell, now that I’m set to graduate, I’m getting pretty sentimental. It’s difficult to put into words what the last four years have meant to me, but I’m going to try," he wrote in the letter, which was posted on a website called The Players' Tribune.
The site, which was founded by former MLB player Derek Jeter, publishes reflective first-person stories written by athletes.
“Dear Jayhawks Nation,” Ellis wrote as the greeting.
In the letter, Ellis reminisces about the first time he stepped on Allen Fieldhouse Drive, moving to Lawrence from his home in Wichita and being placed in the starting lineup as a freshman for the first regular season game.
The first time he saw the University of Kansas basketball in person, he was in sixth grade. They were surrounded by Jayhawks gear and fans with smeared face paint.
“No one forgets their first time watching a basketball game in the Phog,” he wrote. “The fans… they’re just electric, man.”
Thirteen Final Four banners. James Naismith. The student section.
"I had dreams of playing for those fans. How could I not? What football is to Alabama, basketball is to Kansas. It’s everything. But, if I were lucky enough to represent the University of Kansas one day, that meant I would have to leave my hometown behind, which wouldn’t be easy," he wrote.
This moment left a lasting impression on him. In the letter, Perry says he was “born to be a Jayhawk.”
"I knew what school was right for me. I’d known since the first time I stepped on campus,” he wrote.
Perry also reflected on his first game, when head basketball coach Bill Self put him in the starting lineup as a freshman for the first regular season game of 2012.
"I couldn’t control my heart rate at all. I’ll never forget seeing that lineup sheet, and how my stomach just jumped. That was the most nervous I’ve ever been.
But, when I dressed and laced up my kicks, I knew I was gonna be alright. This was what I’d been working for. I’ll never forget the roar of the crowd as I ran through the tunnel, past the bench and onto that big, colorful Jayhawk at midcourt. And I saw the same blue-and-yellow-and-red-and-white sea of fans that I had once been a part of way back in the sixth grade.
This was it, I thought.
I’m a Kansas Jayhawk. This is my home. This is where I belong."
Perry also sent thanks to Self and his fellow students in this letter.
To head basketball coach Bill Self:
"If a player ever made a bad mistake or took a play off, you always said, 'I’m gonna blow a gasket! I’m gonna blow a gasket!' Coach, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you actually blow a gasket. I don’t even know what that would look like, to be honest. But it showed how you, like the fans, took the game so seriously, and I respected that so much."
To KU and students:
"Wichita is where I was born, but now I will always consider Lawrence home. You’ve helped me so much as a player and as a person.
He closed the letter by saying:
"Maybe one day, if I’m lucky enough to play in the NBA, I’ll be able to inspire one of those kids. Maybe, one day, I’ll watch them become the face of Kansas basketball. And, maybe one day, I’ll be the one to cheer them along the way to college basketball glory."
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