By DIANE GASPER-O'BRIEN

dobrien@dailynews.net

A Hays landmark from days gone by is coming down next week.

But not before the former owner had a chance to get last one peek at the business that brings back a lot of fond memories for baby boomers.

Marvin "Red" Wycoff, who owned the Varsity Bowl hamburger drive-in for about 30 years in the 1960s, '70s and '80s, made a trip to Hays from his Kansas City home this week for a nostalgic visit before the building is razed next month.

"Doesn't look the same," he said Monday while reminiscing about his days at the Varsity. "But there sure are a lot of good memories there."

The building most recently had been the home of Lomato's Pizza, which moved to 130 W. Ninth this fall when Overland Property Group bought Lomato's to build an apartment complex.

"It's kind of sad," Wycoff's wife, Mary, said of the building being torn down. "But life goes on, and things change. Sometimes it's time."

But it sure was fun for them to remember a different, and simpler, time.

Wycoff told how he often walked to Abby's Cafe -- located in the building that now houses Screenprint Specialties at 706 Main -- to eat while he was attending Fort Hays Kansas State College.

Along the way, he watched the progress of the construction of a new diner at the corner of Fourth and Main Streets.

One day, Henry Pratt, who built the Varsity, asked the young Wycoff if he wanted a job when the restaurant opened.

Wycoff said, "Sure," and when the Varsity officially opened Feb. 25, 1950, Wycoff was in the kitchen cooking.

Just a few months later, Pratt was called away to the Korean War.

One of his favorite employees, Wycoff, was too young to lease the business, so Pratt leased it to Abby Sherrill, the owner of Abby's Cafe.

Not long thereafter, Wycoff said, Sherrill suffered a stroke and his wife, Nina, took over.

After working under Nina Sherrill for several years, Wycoff leased the restaurant from Pratt, then eventually bought it and dropped the "Bowl" from the name.

"Pratt was planning to build a bowling alley behind it one day," Wycoff said. "That's why he called it that."

The bowling alley never materialized, but the restaurant gained popularity through the years, serving burgers and french fries, as well as chicken and shrimp dinners.

It was one of the first -- if not the first -- businesses in town to serve snoballs.

Wycoff said the Varsity's best seller was the "hushburger," a fried hamburger from which Wycoff would core out the center, deep fat fry it in batter, then place it back in the burger.

"I think we sold them for 15 cents," he said.

"And they used 20 cents worth of ketchup," his wife added.

Back in the pre-cell phone era when gas cost less than $1, the Varsity served as a hangout for teenagers. It was one of the turnaround points for those dragging Main Street.

"If you wanted to socialize and see people, you went down to Main Street," said Linda (Horton) Street, who graduated from Hays High School in 1980. "And the Varsity was the place to be."

Lori (Batson) Vitztum, who moved to Hays from Manhattan when she was a sophomore in high school in the late 1970s, agreed.

"Main Street was always packed, and it would take a half hour to an hour to go up Main," said Vitztum, an HHS classmate of Street's.

"That's how you saw people. The Varsity had a drive-up, and you'd get something to drink there," Vitztum said. "By the time you got up Main and back again, you'd need another drink."

"You met your friends down there, got into different cars, a safe place to hang out," said Jane (Schueler) Downing, a 1980 graduate of Marian High School who now lives in Ellis.

Teenagers from all around the area came to Hays to drag Main, thus spening a lot of time at the Varsity as well.

"Mike (her husband) says we probably passed him during that time," Downing said with a laugh.

"We cruised the Varsity a lot, and when I saw they were tearing it down, I hated to think of it," she added.

The Wycoffs, whose only child, Kimberly, grew up around the business, sold the business and moved to the Kansas City area in 1990.

But Wycoff, known to most who knew him as "Red," never forgot his days at the Varsity.

And Darrell Dreher wants to make sure he never will.

Dreher is co-owner of M&D of Hays Inc., the excavating company in charge of demolition of the Varsity, which is scheduled to start Wednesday.

"He asked me if I would save a couple of bricks for him (from the Varsity)," Dreher said of Wycoff. "I thought for as many hamburgers as he made there, I could do that for him."