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How long have you been following Billiken basketball?


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that is where i sat. but i wasnt in teh slucrew as i was a commuter and never got into the slu student community much as i worked full time while going to school full time as well. my only student activity was pretty much those billiken games.

the chair kid was not wearing a hat.

the reason we were so effective and probably came off so clearly as "a bunch of immature children" was that besides us few students, there were probably less than 500 other folks in the entire checkerdome. i swear people could have conversations across court it was so quiet in there from a lack of fans compared to the spaciousness of the checkerdome.

today's billiken fans have no clue how bad it can or did get.

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Re the quiet at the games, a guy (probably a season ticket holder) that sat in good seats across from the opponent's bench, would throw some change on the court after a particularly bad call from the refs. You could literally hear the coins rattling and bouncing on the wood floor.

SLU and Tulane were the bottom feeders in the old Metro. We always felt that we got "homered at home." But we could usually beat Tulane, sometimes even in New Orleans.

Louisville was completely out of our reach then. From time to time, SLU could rise up at home and beat the then Memphis State (now Memphis). Cincinnati could be beaten too from time to time.

We were sitting in our usual seats behind the basket once while experiencing the horror of watching our Billikens blow a 7 point lead with 30 seconds left against Florida State and lose the game in regulation. SLU literally could not successfully inbound the ball right in front of us. If we could have, all of us would have gone out on the court to help out.

SLU has come so far since those days.

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Since the late 50's...I know I am showing my age...but that age is better than the alternative. My first game that I saw was Bills VS Iowa, and Don Nelson was playing for Iowa...Bennington was the SLU HC at the time.

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Since the early 80's - Seeing my old HS coach Grawer run the same in bound plays he ran at the Palace on Ballas. Seeing Red Hudson take on John Salley, Ramon Trice vs. Mark Price - SLU hung with GA Tech only to lose in the final minutes. I was about ten rows behind the basket on the Bill's bench side of the friendly confines of the old Kiel. What memories!

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since my freshman year, 1960 when I was a walk on the frosh team with Garrison, Beckmeier, Strange, Luchtefeld, Grieger, etc. I don't think I missed a home game after that for 4 years. After leaving town in '64 I could not follow the Bills until this website came along a few years ago. The new blogs keep getting better for us far flung fans. Thanks everyone.

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Early 80s for me. I remember being one of the VERY select few students in the student section for some games at the old Kiel. I also remember how exciting it was when Monroe and his "tag-along friend" Roland announced their decisions to play for SLU. Then Bonner a year later. I feel that we are on the cusp of a similar renaissance of Billiken hoops. We aren't starting off as low as we were then and I think that our landing spot will be much higher this time as well.

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My dad began taking me to Billiken games in 1960. I have attended over 75% of the home games ever since.

Before every game, the SLU marching band would assemble on the stage of the old Kiel Auditorium and play the bullfight song followed by 'when the saints go marching in', while parading a lap around the basketball court. The student section was down low across from the benches and scorers table, at midcourt.

The freshmen team would always play the first game, followed by the varsity.

We were personal friends with Bob Polk - came over to the house from time to time. Very nice guy.

I still have a couple of blue and white miniature basketballs that the cheerleaders used to throw to the crowd during the 60's.

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My earliest intro to the Bills was the 60' or 61' team that lost to Providence in the NIT. For some unexplained reason this 8th grader from Maine was rooting for SLU to beat the best college team in New England. They didn't. I was a Bills fan from my Freshman year on, which was Bob Polk's first year. Wiley was on that team along with Jimmy Irving. Jesse, Harry, and Bill P were Frosh. I can't think of more than one or two home games I missed in the 3 years I was at SLU. I still recall with great humor the night 4 of us travelled to Bradley to watch the playoff game against Louisville. That year Memphis, SLU, and UL all tied for the conference lead and a play off was required to see who went to the NCAA. Am pretty sure that was Crum's first year at UL. Sadly, we lost. We also lost one of our riders who met a Bradley coed and decided to spend the night in Peoria. The MVC back then was something. It seemed every team was capable of winning on any given night.

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Alameda, we were the same year. I had been a fan since about 1950. Harry Cary was doing the broadcasts as Trumpeteer mentioned and he was largely responsible for me becoming a fan. In 1956 I joined the high school band because I wanted to be one of the old trumpeteers that played at the games. Unfortionately, I got stuck on a baritone horn, but that turned out pretty good anyway.

I did not miss a home game during those years. You and trumpeteer left out the Nordmann's from the early 60's. They grew up on the next block from where I lived. And don't forget Boushka and Ferry from the 1950's

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I've been following college basketball since the 1988-89 season, and since I'm a homer, that means the Billikens have been one of my teams. I have been a season-ticket holder since 2006-07. I used to follow and root for Missouri and SLU virtually equally (No. 1a and 1b teams), but now SLU is my favorite and Missouri has dropped to a rather distant No. 2.

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Since 1970. I was on the board of the Billiken Club when we raised money for exotic things such as buying the team a road meal other than at McDonald's. The Billiken Club at that time was the lastline of defense against an administration that was thinking D-3. Since then myself and 3 friends make a 110 mile round trip for each game.

It's been good and it's been bad, but it has always been Billiken B-ball.

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1984: My dad (SLU Grad, along with his dad) took me to see them play at the old Kiel against Xavier who won the conference that year. SLU was losing the whole game, but with only a few seconds left, Xavier missed a free throw, Pee Wee Leonard took the outlet and passed it to Luther Burder who nailed a 30 footer as time expired to send it to overtime. SLU wins it in overtime, a big upset.

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