Bonnie Ser is the K-Stater to know in Las Vegas

Posted January 27, 2025

Bonnie Ser

The next time you plan a trip to Las Vegas, Nevada, be sure to reach out to Bonnie Ser

She has tips, secrets and recommendations for every K-Stater to have the perfect Vegas experience… And if the timing is right, she’ll invite you to the K-State Las Vegas Spirit Club’s next watch party.

“People are always asking about places to go, restaurants and everything else and so we put that together for them,” she said.

The Las Vegas club is unique because of its location. Occasionally, K-State teams come to town for competitions and the club then partners with the Alumni Association to welcome a sea of purple visitors. In 2023 they helped host K-Staters for a pregame party as the men’s basketball team played USC at T-Mobile Arena for the Hall of Fame Series.

“That was so much fun,” she said. “Meeting all the other alumni from all the different clubs.”

Earlier this season they welcomed K-State fans as the women’s basketball team competed in the 2024 Ball Dawgs Classic. The K-State volleyball team also recently visited, and K-Staters from the club gathered to cheer on the ’Cats.

“We have a pretty good mix of recent graduates with those of us that were there in the ’60s,” Ser said, noting that what she loves most about being a club leader is getting to meet people. “Not only the local ones, but the ones that come in to visit Las Vegas for different events. And meeting people from my generation versus some of the ones that are just now graduating.”

The Vegas club regularly has watch parties for a variety of sports. Occasionally the club will intermingle with alumni clubs from various other Big 12 schools.

“We have gotten together with the KU group to do baseball games and we just met with the Iowa State group for the football game and we've met with Oklahoma State,” she said. “They have a big showing here too, so we've gotten to know a lot of the other Big 12 clubs in the area.”

Some of the club members even have traveled together to visit the new Big 12 venues at Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and BYU.

Ser has been the club leader in Las Vegas since 2011. Prior to that she led a club in Richmond, Virginia, since 1995.

“We did watch parties, we did picnics, we got together and did other social events,” she said. “We had a pretty good size group. When we first started there was only three or four people and then as the word got out to the Alumni Association, we were having at least 70-80 people at our watch parties.”

Ser remembers a particular watch party in Richmond where the club had invited the local Nebraska club to watch a football game with them; Nebraska was heavily favored to win but K-State prevailed.

“We had probably 150 people in this location and K-State beat Nebraska and oh my gosh, it was absolutely wonderful,” she said. “Everybody was so happy other than the Nebraska people.”

Ser has a strong connection to K-State. With a smile she says “it’s in my blood.” She came to K-State in 1969 to compete on the bowling team. Competitions took her all over the Big Eight creating fond K-State memories. Even though she didn’t graduate, she still has a strong connection to the university. She still stays in touch with her West Hall floormates and often sports K-State purple when she travels.

“I'm that crazy one that you'll see in the airport,” she said.

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