Ah, the 80s… It really didn’t get any better than leg warmers, Duran Duran and The Breakfast Club, did it? You know what else was the best? Growing up/living in Kansas during the 1980s! If you were an 80s kid (or an 80s kid at heart), here are 12 things you may remember…

1.) Sporting your MTXE t-shirt around Wichita
Flickr/Ryan
"Mental Toughness Xtra Effort" (MTXE) was the 1980s slogan for Shockers basketball under coach Gene Smithson.
2.) Flying out of Fairfax Municipal Airport to visit your family in New Hampshire for Thanksgiving
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R.I.P. Fairfax Municipal Airport (1921-1985). *Note: Pictured is the production plant that was built over Fairfax*
3.) Watching your older brother cross the stage to receive his diploma from St. John's Lutheran College...
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R.I.P. St. John's (1893-1986)
4.) ...or your sister from Marymount College
Marymount College of Kansas Facebook
R.I.P. Marymount College (1922-1989)
5.) Zooming along I-70 at a whopping 55 MPH
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Go speed racer!
6.) Watching in horror as the Aggieville Riots unfolded
Flickr/are you my rik?
On TV, of course (you better not have had any part in it)!

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7.) That sick feeling you got in the pit of your stomach when you heard about Chiefs Running Back Joe Delaney
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Delaney had a reputation for going out of his way to help others and was tragically killed on June 29, 1983, when he tried to save three drowning children.
8.) Sipping your first Free State brew
The Free State Brewing Co. Facebook
In 1989, Free State Brewing Company became the first legal brewery in Kansas in over 100 years.
9.) Attending a Wichita Wind hockey game with your weird uncle
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R.I.P. Wichita Wind (1980-1983)
10.) Jamming out to Kenny Rogers, T. Graham Brown and Ronnie Milsap at the grand opening of the Sunflower State Expo
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Now known as Landon Arena (or Kansas Expocentre), the 10,000 seat arena was built in 1987.
11.) Feeling a sense of relief when the Chiefs replaced their "Indian man" mascot with K.C. Wolf
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K.C. Wolf = <3
12.) Visiting Botanica Wichita for the first time
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Wichita never smelled as sweet as it did on that opening day in 1987!

What is your favorite memory of Kansas in the 1980s?

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