{"id":36610,"date":"2024-10-14T07:38:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-14T12:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kwu.edu\/?p=36610"},"modified":"2024-10-12T15:44:50","modified_gmt":"2024-10-12T20:44:50","slug":"superfan-betterson-69-named-lilly-award-recipient","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kwu.edu\/about\/news\/superfan-betterson-69-named-lilly-award-recipient\/","title":{"rendered":"Superfan Betterson &#8217;69 Named Lilly Award Recipient"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"block rtf align style-default align-default position-right bg-color-default\">\n\t<div class=\"block-wrap\">\n\t\t<div class=\"rtf-content cf\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><em><strong>Editor&#8217;s Note:<\/strong> Betterson and David Toelle &#8217;01, &#8217;08, winner of the Randy Bemiss Award, will be honored at the Jerry Jones Athletic Hall of Fame Induction and Alumni Awards Saturday, Oct. 19. <a href=\"https:\/\/one.bidpal.net\/joneshofandalumniawards\/welcome\">Tickets are available here.\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>John Betterson &#8217;69 enjoys watching Kansas Wesleyan\u2019s athletic teams compete.<\/p>\n<p>Doesn\u2019t matter what the sport or team is \u2014 men or women, varsity or developmental, fall, winter or spring. He\u2019s typically in the stands cheering on the Coyotes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just enjoy going and watching them, seeing their performance and seeing them improve,&#8221; he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a lot of fun to go and watch them play and then see (the athletes) afterward and talk with them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Because of his longtime support, Betterson has been named the 2024 recipient of the Gerald Lilly Award. Lilly was a fervent supporter of KWU and attended games from 1948 until he passed away in 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Betterson knew Lilly well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was always there, but he had either been to a K-State game or was going to it,\u201d he said. \u201cHe would go to Southeast (of Saline) football \u2014 he went to just about everything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Betterson, a Salina native, received a degree in Business from KWU in 1969, later attended Marymount and worked for American Electric for 31 years before retiring.<\/p>\n<p>He compiled game statistics for hall of fame basketball coach Ken Cochran while at Marymount, then tracked basketball and football stats for KWU coaches Jerry Jones and Brad Jenkins. He also worked 32 years at the Salina Journal taking high school game statistics over the phone in the fall and winter.<\/p>\n<p>While he never lost touch with Wesleyan after graduating, Betterson\u2019s superfan status took flight in 2014 when his grandnephew Matt Betterson signed to play football for KWU.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe came in as the No. 7 quarterback,\u201d John said. \u201cHe was a little bit discouraged, but he had a good time while he was here and was a good student.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Matt Betterson left after one semester but John was hooked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI started following him (on social media) and through him, I ran into all these parents and kids,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve always been a basketball fan, so I got into the basketball season with that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His love for all things KWU quickly grew.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s just been a lot of fun, meeting parents and meeting the kids \u2014 I hate to call them kids because they\u2019re students, but to me they\u2019re kids,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s been just tremendous following them. Some of them I still follow and see. They come back for class reunions and stuff like that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was looking at the (Jerry Jones Athletic) Hall of Fame photos the other day, and I\u2019d venture to say that I probably personally know about half the people on that board.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If KWU has a team, Betterson has seen it play.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe only sport that I have not seen is the throwing events in track and field,\u201d he said. \u201cI saw a bowling match during the COVIDyear when I was probably the only non-school representative who was there. I\u2019ve seen cheer and dance; I\u2019ve seen virtually everything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Betterson said receiving the Gerald Lilly Award is special.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt means an awful lot,&#8221; he said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t the best student that the school ever had, but I\u2019m probably one of the more loyal fans that the school has.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Story by Bob Davidson<\/span><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":36611,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[150,153],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-athletics"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Superfan Betterson &#039;69 Named Lilly Award Recipient - 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