The room keys at the Graduate hotel on campus are student IDs of former pupils such as Travis

Oscar Robertson. Such as Jason and Travis Kelce.

By Thursday lunchtime, staff were already braced for a few visitors to take their key cards home. By Thursday night in Cincinnati, some of those student IDs had become even more treasured.’To all my fellow students… before we make this thing official, I thought I’d give you guys some advice,” Travis said before breaking into song. ‘You gotta fight. For your right. To PAAAAARRRTTY!’

They had first emerged hours earlier, amid fire and smoke and deafening screams. They had soon sent two students swimming in tubs of chili. They ended the evening flanked by their parents and the school president.

It was a surreal, emotional end to a wild night – part podcast, part gameshow, part marathon, part cringe and calamity. The brothers put on a spelling bee and a rodeo. They chatted with Joe Burrow and Desmond Ridder. What was billed as the first live show of their weekly chin-wag, New Heights, turned into nearly four hours of bedlam.

It was probably fortunate that she didn’t turn up. Local police had prepared for the possible arrival of Taylor Swift. In the end, they need not have worried – she didn’t show.This is where their journey to the big time gathered pace but it was also where their story might have ended. Travis was briefly kicked off the team – and lost his scholarship – after testing positive for marijuana. His future lay in tatters until older brother Jason helped steer him back on track.

More than a decade on, it was the elements that nearly derailed their best-laid plans. Until Wednesday afternoon, this show slated to take place at Nippert Stadium – the football field where these brothers were minted – only for the weather to force a late rethin