Divided loyalties Sisters wear different colors for big Intrastate

KU vs. K-State

- Game time: 1 p.m.

- Location: Memorial Stadium, Lawrence

- Weather forecast at kickoff: 43 degrees, mostly cloudy, southwest winds at 5 to 10 mph

- Expected attendance: 45,000 to 47,000

- Tickets: Still available, $45; two-game package for the K-State and Oklahoma State games, $60.

By Steve Swartz

The Capital-Journal

Cain and Abel. Ann Landers and Dear Abby. The Koch brothers. Peg Bybee and Sue Bogart.

OK, maybe Topeka sisters Bybee and Bogart don't deserve to be lumped in with these famous squabbling siblings. But when it comes to having strong opposing opinions, this pair ranks right up there.

The object of their sisterly split? Today's Sunflower Showdown. The Intrastate Rivalry. Snob Hill versus Silo Tech. For the uninitiated, the annual football game between The University of Kansas and Kansas State University.

"I took a lot of raspberries, I'll tell you that. A lot of razzing," said Bybee, the KU fan, of growing up with four siblings who favored K-State.

Bybee and Bogart have ample opportunity to needle each other about their favorite teams because they work about 5 feet apart in Topeka Unified School District 501's speech pathology department at the Holland Student Center.

"We just mostly banter back and forth," said Bogart, who has been a secretary for the speech department for 14 years.

Oh, if it were only just talk. When Jayhawk-believer Bybee looks across the narrow aisle that separates her work station from her sister's, she must face posters of Wildcat football players, a Christmas tree that never comes down and bears purple ornaments, shiny purple pompons, a K-State computer screen saver, purple Beanie Babies, a "house divided" bird house, purple flower arrangements --- seemingly everything that can be made in purple.

For Bogart, the view of her sister's work space is no less "in your face" --- but in crimson and blue. There are blue and red lights strung over the counter, a Jayhawk dreamcatcher, KU flags, bumper stickers, license plates, candles and KU-dressed stuffed animals.

It doesn't stop there. Bogart has a small gorilla dressed in K- State purple that plays one of the fight songs commonly heard at Wildcat games.

Bybee, a speech pathologist assistant for 13 years, gets even by activating several KU keychains and a Jayhawk cup coaster that all play "I'm a Jayhawk."

"Peg always makes a joke about the fact that we should have done this oppositely," said Bogart, "because she has to sit and look at all my K-State stuff and I have to sit and look at all her KU stuff. We should have done it on opposite ends and then that way we wouldn't be miserable." Despite appearances, the sisters, who were never students at their favorite schools but have children who did attend, say the ribbing is all in fun and they are lifelong best friends. As they sit together in KU's Memorial Stadium today, Bybee might have to remind herself of that sisterly love if the Wildcats continue their overwhelming dominance of the Jayhawks.

But if recent history is a predictor of things to come, Bybee's seasonal suffering may soon be over.

"It's amazing how quiet they (K-State fans) become when basketball season comes around," she said.

Steve Swartz can be reached

at (785) 295-1194 or sswartz@cjonline.com.

MIKE SHEPHERD/The Capital-Journal

Sisters Sue Bogart, left, and Peg Bybee will be cheering for opposing teams at the KU-K-State football game in Lawrence today. Their rivalry goes beyond the game, however, as they try to outdo each other with the appropriate team decorations in their offices at Unified School District 501's Holland Student Center in Topeka.

Online

Hear two sisters discuss their friendly rivalry with today's Sunflower Showdown and find expanded coverage of the game.

www.cjonline.com

See SISTERS, page 9A

Sisters: Sibling

ribbing all

in good sport

Related

For more on college football, see EndZone

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