Then There Were Four

Like millions of other college basketball fans, Christopher Korth used to be content watching the NCAA tournament on TV from his couch or at a local bar. That changed in 1981, when he saw a commercial asking fans to enter a lottery for Final Four tickets.

Korth, ’85, answered the call and his name was drawn. In 1982, he traveled to New Orleans, where he witnessed North Carolina freshman Michael Jordan hit a game-winning shot in the national championship.

He hasn’t missed a Final Four since, attending every NCAA semifinal and title game for 44 consecutive years. Rather than skipping a trip while studying at Washburn Law from 1982-85, he instead picked up new recruits to join him.

At Washburn, he formed lifelong bonds with fellow class of 1985 graduates Matt Hesse, Bren Abbott, and Calvin Rider, who were all equally willing to put their lives on hold one weekend a year for an April basketball pilgrimage. Abbott and Rider have now been to 35 Final Fours, and Hesse, “the rookie of the group,” has attended 23.

“Can you imagine, these new guys have only been going 35 years?” Korth asked.

“All that means is we’ve lived a long life,” Abbott responded.

“And it all started in the halls of Washburn Law School,” Hesse added.

Since the yearly trips began, all four men enjoyed successful law careers, got married, and started families. Half of the group has retired, their kids have graduated college, and the cost to attend the Final Four has risen from a few bucks to a few thousand.

“We started doing this in our early 20s, when we were young and stupid. Now, we’re old and stupid,” Korth joked.
One constant over the past four decades is that when the semifinals begin Saturday night, and the championship tips off Monday night, the foursome is there in person, making plenty of memories in between.

“Our wives have gone to many of them,” Rider said. “Each one of us has had an opportunity to bring a child or maybe all of our children to one Final Four, and that’s always a special time for us because they actually get to meet the guys they hear us talking about all the time. But for the most part, it’s mostly just the guys. Our wives, even if they come and even if they love basketball, they know this is our guys trip.”

Because the Final Four moves around, the crew has seen many different parts of the country. When the games are in New Orleans, they’ve gone alligator hunting. In Indianapolis, they’ve visited the infamous speedway. In Houston, they’ve been to NASA and an Astros opening day game. No matter the location, steakhouse reservations are a must.

“The games are really nice but the Sunday night dinner when we find a five-star steakhouse is always a special time,” Hesse said. “Because it’s in the city the tournament is in, you’re running into players and former and current coaches.”

The friends have sat down for dinner with Ralph Sampson and Dean Smith, and had long conversations in hotels with Mike Krzyzewski, Charles Barkley, and JJ Redick.

One of the most memorable on-court moments involved Chris Webber and Michigan’s “Fab Five” in 1993. When the Wolverines upset Kentucky in the semifinals, disappointed Wildcat fans handed the group their courtside tickets for the national championship. The game’s final sequence was perhaps the most infamous in basketball history.

“It’s late in the game, they inbounded to Chris Webber and he traveled,” Korth said. “The refs all missed it, and all four of us are yelling, ‘He traveled!’ Webber got so flustered – we always said it’s because he could hear us – that he called timeout. They were out of timeouts, so they got a technical foul and that’s how the game was decided. So, we’d like to believe we changed history too.”

The distance between them has grown, with Korth in Kansas City, Hesse and Rider in Wichita, and Abbott in Florida, but like Webber and the Fab Five, the four Washburn Law friends remain forever linked. In October, the group celebrated the 40th anniversary of their graduation.

“We went to Washburn Law at an amazing time. We started in 1982, and there were fairly young professors who were new there,” said Korth, mentioning Linda Elrod, BA ’69, JD ’72, James Concannon, H ’24, and Raymond Spring, BA ’57, JD ’59.

“Back then, the big movie was ‘The Paper Chase,’ which says, ‘Look left, look right. One of you won’t be here next year.’ At Washburn, they said, ‘Look left, look right. If one of you isn’t here, it’s all three of our faults. We need to work together.’ Washburn’s the bind that brought us all together.”

The group credits Washburn for helping them find fulfillment in the 51 weeks of the year that don’t end in a Final Four. Hesse was legal counsel for the Ascension Via Christi St. Francis nonprofit hospital in Wichita and retired in January. Abbott did insurance defense work and litigation for Farmers Insurance Company before retiring to Florida in 2020. Korth still does attorney work on his own, specializing in workers compensation and traffic cases. Rider works for Fleeson Gooing Law Firm in Wichita, where he represents school districts and facilitates business transactions.

“Going to Washburn and becoming lawyers afforded us the financial security to be able to go on these trips and have fun,” Rider said. “If you put a dollar figure on 34 or 35 of these trips, you could say, ‘Wow, I could’ve invested that, and I’d have a nice, tidy sum.’ But I wouldn’t give this up for anything.”

“It’s not exactly a dirt-cheap weekend,” Korth said of the Final Four. “The prices have risen over the years, but once we’re there, it’s always so much fun. We’ve always joked there’s only two tickets: inside the arena and outside. And if we’re inside the arena, we’re happy to be there.”