KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Today’s pub crawl brings an ever-changing cast of characters to Kelly’s Westport Inn. Eager participants draped in beads are clambering in from buses and off the street to mingle and try their hand at a miniature golf game on the barroom floor.

Kelly’s employee Joe Addington watches the scene with a congenial smile as he greets each patron and checks the IDs of the younger-looking guests.

“I saw two girls walk in here; they were playing with those plastic toy clubs. Can you believe that?” Addington says to one familiar customer as he passes into the bar.

Into this scene walk two individuals Addington classifies as suspicious. It’s not their IDs — both are admitted with a friendly smile. It’s not their behavior or anything else that would grab attention at most other bars. What sets these patrons apart is something very specific to Kelly’s — they are wearing University of Iowa T-shirts. Luckily for them, everyone is still welcome at Kelly’s, because whether they know it or not, they are deep in the heart of Cyclone Country.

Kelly’s Westport Inn — or simply Kelly’s — is a long-established center of Cyclone pride in Kansas City, and is also one of the premier meeting places for ISU fans and students in Kansas City.

Especially during the weekend of the Big 12 basketball tournament, which returns to Kansas City next week.

“They tend to gravitate here like a magnet,” said Jim Rothwell, a Kelly’s regular.

Every March like clockwork, the ISU faithful flock to Kelly’s to watch the Cyclones, celebrate victories and commiserate defeats over a few cold beers in good company — every March, that is, except the last two, when the tournament moved to Texas.

Kelly’s co-owner Pat Kelly has only two words to describe what he has done at Big 12 tournament time for those past two years.

“I cried,” he said.

Now that the tournament is returning to the venue some Cyclone fans have taken to calling “Hilton South,” Kelly is looking forward to seeing his bar fill up once again with a distinctly cardinal and gold clientele.

“It’s huge for Kansas City, and by far our busiest week of the year thanks to ISU Cyclone fans,” Kelly said. “Cyclones fans are fantastic — even if they lose in the first round, they will stick around for the whole weekend. They take the place over from about eight o’clock on Thursday to Sunday afternoon.”

During that time, Kelly said, the bar becomes an almost exclusively Cyclone hangout.

“It was amazing to see all those Cyclone fans and almost no other shirts,” Addington said, recalling his experience during an earlier tournament.

During Kelly’s busy seasons — the Big 12 championship and St. Patrick’s Day — it is not uncommon for the bar to be filled to capacity.

“We cue people around the corner and down the block. Usually they are very patient,” Addington said.

“When we fill up to 650 to 700 people, everyone is pretty much standing on top of each other. I tell people at the door, ‘I would like to let you come in, but there ain’t nowhere to go.'”

Despite the crowding, everyone at Kelly’s seemed to agree that it is a pleasure to share their favorite neighborhood hangout with a few hundred excited Cyclone fans.

“They are well-behaved fans and customers. Nothing really out of the ordinary happens when they are here, and that is good,” Kelly said.

Kelly recalls once having to remove a University of Kansas student from the bar in front of rolling news cameras, but doesn’t remember ever having problems with Cyclone fans.

“I have to give credit to the fans, they’re loyal and fun to party with,” Rothwell said.

Addington said the Big 12 experience is largely a blur, but he does recall one patron in particular.

“Your former coach used to enjoy this place too,” he said.

Larry Eustachy probably won’t visit this year — his Southern Mississippi team ends its season tomorrow — but with Kansas City more than 500 miles closer to Ames than Dallas, one demographic that could be more in force for this Big 12 tournament is ISU students.

Students planning to visit Kelly’s during the tournament will be happy to know Cyclone brotherhood and spirits are not the only things on tap here. Kelly’s provides the third necessity of life as well — pizza.

Joe’s Pizza has adjoined Kelly’s for eight years and serves slices directly through Kelly’s back wall into the hands of patrons.

“It’s a very good mix. Especially in the evening, after a few beers, [the students] want pizza,” Kelly said.

Kelly said his bar is always alive with a strong Cyclone spirit — a spirit that becomes stronger as the days narrow on the approach to the Big 12 tournament. An anonymous patron strolled into the bar Saturday proudly shouting, “Here we go, Cyclones, here we go!” loudly enough for the whole bar to hear. The time is drawing near.