Sherae Honeycutt

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Original Post

Loyola Chicago has Sister Jean, but did you know that Kansas has Ruby-do?

The 102-year-old woman from Kansas City, Kansas, is one of the Jayhawks oldest and possibly biggest fans.

She lives in a tiny cottage covered in KU memorabilia with signed notes from Bill Self, framed pictures of her next to Davonte Graham and a hand-drawn picture of her next to Big Jay.

On Monday, Ruby sat in her recliner chair with blue and red pom-pom gloves, singing with an energy you wouldn’t expect from someone older than a century.

“Hey, hey! Rock Chalk KU!” Ruby White cheered. “This oughta spruce them up!”

White loves her Jayhawks, and the special nickname her son gave her — Ruby-do. Ruby said her family gave her the nickname for laughs.

“Because she’s a can-do person,” her son Barry White said. “She’s always been that way. It started out as a sense of can-do, can-do, KU, can-do. They can win that championship, and she just passes that on to everybody.”

She watched Sunday night’s game in awe.

“My son was hi-fiving me and screaming. I thought the house was coming down,” Ruby said. “I was so happy for them. I just had big tears rolling down. I thought that Self must be happy. He was, too.”

Her son thinks can-do Ruby-do is a good luck charm, just like Sister Jean is for Loyola.

“Oh, isn`t she darling? She is so sweet! She made my day, you know,” Ruby said.

“I do. There’s no question she’s a good luck charm for KU, and if we end up playing Loyola, they’ve got Sister Jean, but we’ve got Ruby Do,” Barry White said.

Ruby said she’d love to go see the Jayhawks’ Final Four game — and perhaps a National Championship game — in San Antonio, but doesn’t want to be a distraction to Coach Bill Self.

“Would he think I was butting in?” Ruby said. “I can’t wait til Saturday. I’ll be thinking, ‘I wonder if they can beat Villanova.’”

She does, however, have some advice for Self.

“Listen, just be himself. He don’t get riled up too much,” she said. “Well, he does when he`s supposed to. He can pull it off.”

She also wanted her favorite player, point guard Davonte Graham, to get those three-pointers going and to keep smiling.

Ruby said Davonte is the nicest kid.

“Win or lose, they’ve made it. They did great. The went from nothing really to all of this, and they’ve got so much spirit,” Ruby said.

Just remember KU: Ruby-do is rooting for you!

Ruby’s son said usually they take a nap when they are watching a KU basketball game, but since March Madness started they can’t keep their eyes off the screen.