Favorite Memory as an Undergrad Here at SLU

[b.hayes]

From Quincy too, eh? What a guy. I've been to Tower Pizza, but I more fondly remember a little place where we could get some great cheese fries. Can't remember the name, though I think there are two different ones in Quincy.

[Box and Won]

Anybody have a picture of Billy Lou?.I was trying to explain him to someone and could not find anything.

I would absolutely love to see a pic of Billy Lou. I find the whole concept hilarious.

[lawyerbilliken07]

For someone like me, a non-St. Louis native who knows comparatively little about the SLU that existed before I came in 2000, this is some pretty entertaining stuff. Apparently things have changed quite a bit over the years ...

[Bay Area Billiken]

From Quincy too, eh? What a guy. I've been to Tower Pizza, but I more fondly remember a little place where we could get some great cheese fries. Can't remember the name, though I think there are two different ones in Quincy.

Was it the Maid Rite? It is a Quincy institution on 12th and Oak. The newer one that was on East Broadway has closed and a Mexican restaurant is at that site.

Maid Rite was on the Food Channel a year or two ago.

When I was a kid, Maid Rites were 12 cents.

Whenever Quincy expatriates return home, we have to make a visit, or two or more, to the Maid Rite.

[Bay Area Billiken]

Anybody have a picture of Billy Lou?.I was trying to explain him to someone and could not find anything.

Billy Lou was a pathetic looking guy dressed in something like a Barbershop Quartet member's outfit. He had a mascot type head of a human with one of those flat type straw hats. He was supposed to be akin to the leader of a dance team, the Billy Lou Strutters.

The Billy Lou Strutters replaced the cheerleaders. I know at least one of the Billy Lou Strutters was a Football Cardinal cheerleader (known then as The Big Red Line).

The worst of all was when that female SLU student sang to Billy Lou over the PA system before the games: "Billy Lou, we love you, SLU ..." Good grief that was sad. The singer had a good voice, but the song was about as corny as could be. Can you imagine guys like Darrell Griffith, Keith Lee out there with that song being sung?

[billiken_roy]

Billy Lou was a pathetic looking guy dressed in something like a Barbershop Quartet member's outfit. He had a mascot type head of a human with one of those flat type straw hats. He was supposed to be akin to the leader of a dance team, the Billy Lou Strutters.

The Billy Lou Strutters replaced the cheerleaders. I know at least one of the Billy Lou Strutters was a Football Cardinal cheerleader (known then as The Big Red Line).

The worst of all was when that female SLU student sang to Billy Lou over the PA system before the games: "Billy Lou, we love you, SLU ..." Good grief that was sad. The singer had a good voice, but the song was about as corny as could be. Can you imagine guys like Darrell Griffith, Keith Lee out there with that song being sung?

if you take bay area billiken's dress description and put it on the staypuff marshmellow man from ghostbusters you got billy lou.

[Adman]

SLU did have David Burns, who was later drafted by the NBA. That McKendree game was one of those aberrations. They came in all fired up. The SLU team acted like it could just show up and turn it on.

I agree that SLU was outmanned in the Metro, except for Tulane. We could beat Tulane.

Earlier in his tenure at SLU, Ekker had a reputation as a good coach, at least that's what we heard. Bob Costas raved about Ekker's great coaching job in the Mizzou game in his second year at SLU.

In retrospect, Ekker probably should not have taken on the AD duties and just stuck to being the basketball coach. Once he became AD, there were issues with the other SLU sports, as SLU athletes from other sports often felt slighted vis-a-vis the basketball team. And there were issues with the students. Ekker was trying to have an NBA type show in terms of the Billy Lou Strutters. It wasn't the college basketball atmosphere that most of us wanted. We always heard that the SLU Jazz Band didn't want to play at the Basketball games, even though my recollection is that they did before Ekker's arrival. In any event, putting the Billiken mascot into mothballs in favor of the regrettable Billy Lou, not having a student band, but rather having that rent a band, and not letting the Billy Lou Strutters cheer at the soccer games, to say nothing of the embarrassing losing by the team, especially to McKendree, did not help Ekker with the students.

He brought in all those JUCO's in his last year, SLU started off strong in the non-conference part of the schedule, even winning a road game at Butler, but then came the Incident with the Center at about New Year's, and the season completely unraveled after that. Ekker resigned as Basketball Coach effective at the end of the season. That team won only 1 game after the Incident, ironically on the road at Cincinnati, and finished 6-21. Ekker was replaced as AD during that second semester of his last year at SLU.

I can tell you that we feared that SLU was going to drop to D-2. We were so relieved when we went to that press conference at Busch Center in which it was announced that SLU was staying in D-1, but moving to the then Midwestern City Conference (now Horizon League). SLU hired Rich Grawer as coach, he resurrected the program from the deep abyss, and the rest is history.

I was at SLU in these days and can give you a bit of information about the band situation. You are correct; originally the Jazz Band did play at basketball (and hockey) games before Ekker's arrival. In fact, the members of the Jazz Band during that time -- and during Ekker's time -- were awarded half-tuition scholarships funded by the Athletic Department to play the games. You're also right that the members didn't want to play the games. The Music Department, which ran the Jazz Band and administered the scholarships, had no interest in running a pep band for the games either. As classically-trained professionals running a degree program, they saw it as beneath them. While less adamant, the Jazz Band musicians -- also serious about their craft -- saw it as beneath them, too.

Somehow the Jazz Band got out of playing the games. But as mentioned above, the scholarships lived on. Amazing. In any case, Ekker went looking for another band, a rent-a-band. About half of the musicians in that band were students, the rest came from elsewhere. And they were paid. So the students in the rent-a-band not only got half scholarships for playing in the Jazz Band (a credited course), but got additional for playing the games. Not a bad gig if you could put up with the basketball. Some years later, the Music Department was closed, Mike Beczkala was hired to create a large pep band -- and the rest is history.

One really sad part of the Ekker days -- and one rarely mentioned -- is that his daughter was a student at that time and bore the tremendous embarrassment of having daddy living with a certain Strutter. In addition, of course, to the bad basketball, mascot, music, singing...........

One question. There's been a couple mentions of an Incident with the Center-a punch to the face. Somehow, I missed that one. Anyone care to elaborate?

[Bay Area Billiken]

One question. There's been a couple mentions of an Incident with the Center-a punch to the face. Somehow, I missed that one. Anyone care to elaborate?

Thanks. I knew a member of the Jazz Band, and a member of the Rent-a-Band. After the renegade band started playing at the basketball games, sometimes the Rent-a-Band would join in playing the song at the other end. But the renegade band only was able to play a few songs- When the Saints Go Marching In, Eat 'em Up, and that pep song where the fans chant at the end, "Let's go Bills" or "S-L-U." At Michigan, they chant "Let's go Blue" to the same song.

For some reason the Rent-a-Band sat clear at the other baseline of the court, far away from the students, who sat on the floor on the baseline at the other end.

When I was a freshman, Ernie Hays played the organ at both the SLU basketball and hockey games. Marquette came to town that year with a great team led by Bernard Toone and Sam Worthy, and coached then by Hank Raymonds, a former SLU player. Marquette was 2 years removed from winning the National Championship. Marquette brought its Band to the game, which was on a Saturday night and drew over 10,000. Marquette won 71-51. The Marquette Band was playing the Marquette Fight Song, "Ring Out a Hoya" after the game. Ernie Hays cranked up the organ in the rafters and drowned out the Marquette Band with his organ version of "When the Saints Go Marching In."

Re the reported incident, see the NY Times archive story in Post #52 above in this thread. The reported incident was over Christmas Break, on the same trip after the Butler game in Indianapolis (a SLU win no less). And when we returned for the second semester at SLU, all Hades had broken loose. I had been apprised of it before we returned to SLU for that second semester.

[MusicCityBilliken]

I was at SLU in these days and can give you a bit of information about the band situation. You are correct; originally the Jazz Band did play at basketball (and hockey) games before Ekker's arrival. In fact, the members of the Jazz Band during that time -- and during Ekker's time -- were awarded half-tuition scholarships funded by the Athletic Department to play the games. You're also right that the members didn't want to play the games. The Music Department, which ran the Jazz Band and administered the scholarships, had no interest in running a pep band for the games either. As classically-trained professionals running a degree program, they saw it as beneath them. While less adamant, the Jazz Band musicians -- also serious about their craft -- saw it as beneath them, too.

Somehow the Jazz Band got out of playing the games. But as mentioned above, the scholarships lived on. Amazing. In any case, Ekker went looking for another band, a rent-a-band. About half of the musicians in that band were students, the rest came from elsewhere. And they were paid. So the students in the rent-a-band not only got half scholarships for playing in the Jazz Band (a credited course), but got additional for playing the games. Not a bad gig if you could put up with the basketball. Some years later, the Music Department was closed, Mike Beczkala was hired to create a large pep band -- and the rest is history.

One really sad part of the Ekker days -- and one rarely mentioned -- is that his daughter was a student at that time and bore the tremendous embarrassment of having daddy living with a certain Strutter. In addition, of course, to the bad basketball, mascot, music, singing...........

One question. There's been a couple mentions of an Incident with the Center-a punch to the face. Somehow, I missed that one. Anyone care to elaborate?

Didn't SLU have a jazz band during the Grawer years?

I recall going to the NIT games at Madison Square Garden and this jazz band accompanied the team. For some reason I remember them playing McArthurs Park. A nice song (kind of lenghty) but not really a get psyched basketball song.

[Runnin'Billiken]

One of my favorites was my freshman year, 06-07, we had Xavier at home and during a timeout the flag runners were running so close to the Xavier huddle that the flags were grazing players. The coaching staff all went crazy, screaming at the refs and the student section, which was loving it. When the band played "Hey Baby", lyrics were replaced with "Hey, hey Xavier, we wanna knowwww, how you like our flags" and one assistant of theirs lost it, screaming "ZERO CLASS" to the students for like the next 10 mins.

The best part is, Bills won by 8 or 10 points.

During the Xavier game this year, 05 was the "S" and I was the "L". Being fully aware of this previous "incident", while in the tunnel waiting to go out, I threaten 05's life not to f*** with their bench. So we get going, and of course, Mario is out there watching like a hawk, with eyes that say "Just try it and so help me God...I will end you." And of course, being the dumb@$$ sh** disturber that he is, 05 proceeds to get as close as humanly possible to their bench without grazing them, and Mario is about to have a sh** fit. We did one fewer lap than usual as Mario heads towards the refs. What a crybaby. Classic.

For my moment, I will go outside the box.

It was Winter Break, 2008-09. First year at the 'Fetz, very few students and a lighter crowd during a buy game versus USC Upstate. The Spartan's guard Carter Cook is rocking a full-on perm. The winter break games are quieter, and the band really takes there heckling to the next level of amazing. They begin. It continues. Someone eventually shouts, "Number thirty-three!! Who gave you that perm?!! Your mom?!!!" Just then, a women stands up in the section behind the USCU bench. "I'm his mom!" The women is normal in almost every way...except for flowing locks of permed hair. Next to her are Carter's two sisters. Also with perms. Hilarity ensues. The band feasts on this epic opportunity. One of their top performances to date.

[billikenfan05]

During the Xavier game this year, 05 was the "S" and I was the "L". Being fully aware of this previous "incident", while in the tunnel waiting to go out, I threaten 05's life not to f*** with their bench. So we get going, and of course, Mario is out there watching like a hawk, with eyes that say "Just try it and so help me God...I will end you." And of course, being the dumb@$$ sh** disturber that he is, 05 proceeds to get as close as humanly possible to their bench without grazing them, and Mario is about to have a sh** fit. We did one fewer lap than usual as Mario heads towards the refs. What a crybaby. Classic.

For my moment, I will go outside the box.

It was Winter Break, 2008-09. First year at the 'Fetz, very few students and a lighter crowd during a buy game versus USC Upstate. The Spartan's guard Carter Cook is rocking a full-on perm. The winter break games are quieter, and the band really takes there heckling to the next level of amazing. They begin. It continues. Someone eventually shouts, "Number thirty-three!! Who gave you that perm?!! Your mom?!!!" Just then, a women stands up in the section behind the USCU bench. "I'm his mom!" The women is normal in almost every way...except for flowing locks of permed hair. Next to her are Carter's two sisters. Also with perms. Hilarity ensues. The band feasts on this epic opportunity. One of their top performances to date.

Can you please give credit where credit is due on you favorite moment. I believe I was the one who yelled that.

For my favorite moment I will go out of the box as well. My favorite moment can be summed up by a single picture:

Count the middle fingers!

[NH]

Can you please give credit where credit is due on you favorite moment. I believe I was the one who yelled that.

what about when the MVSSUVUSVUSUVUSUVVVSSUSUSUSVUVUVCVUVUUVUVSUVSUS team started laughing on the bench when you sang Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

[Runnin'Billiken]

Can you please give credit where credit is due on you favorite moment. I believe I was the one who yelled that.

For my favorite moment I will go out of the box as well. My favorite moment can be summed up by a single picture:

Count the middle fingers!

OK, then I change mine.

My favorite moment was walking back to my apartment after the UMKC game during winter break 2009-10 when UMKC player Alex Bazzell's sister told you to go f*** yourself.

And it wasn't you who yelled it during the USCU game. It was a band memeber. I remember it specifically.

[billikenfan05]

OK, then I change mine.

My favorite moment was walking back to my apartment after the UMKC game during winter break 2009-10 when UMKC player Alex Bazzell's sister told you to go f*** yourself.

And it wasn't you who yelled it during the USCU game. It was a band memeber. I remember it specifically.

I was on him about the perm as well. I've lost track of all the people I've pissed off. Will always remember that chick yellin at me in the parking lot. Nobody gives a F*** about Alex Bazzell!

[Runnin'Billiken]

what about when the MVSSUVUSVUSUVUSUVVVSSUSUSUSVUVUVCVUVUUVUVSUVSUS team started laughing on the bench when you sang Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

1 of 2 times when I have seen the ENTIRE visiting bench crack up. Flat Tops haven't been cool since 1993. Seriously.

[billikenfan05]

I will say one thing. As much as I hate seeing our stands empty during breaks. Those are probably the most fun games for me because the other team and their fans can hear everything I say.

[billikenfan05]

1 of 2 times when I have seen the ENTIRE visiting bench crack up. Flat Tops haven't been cool since 1993. Seriously.

What was the second?

[b.hayes]

Was it the Maid Rite? It is a Quincy institution on 12th and Oak. The newer one that was on East Broadway has closed and a Mexican restaurant is at that site.

Maid Rite was on the Food Channel a year or two ago.

When I was a kid, Maid Rites were 12 cents.

Whenever Quincy expatriates return home, we have to make a visit, or two or more, to the Maid Rite.

Exactly it, BAB. I knew I soon as you come up with the name I would recognize it. Good stuff.

[DeSmetBilliken]

It was Winter Break, 2008-09. First year at the 'Fetz, very few students and a lighter crowd during a buy game versus USC Upstate. The Spartan's guard Carter Cook is rocking a full-on perm. The winter break games are quieter, and the band really takes there heckling to the next level of amazing. They begin. It continues. Someone eventually shouts, "Number thirty-three!! Who gave you that perm?!! Your mom?!!!" Just then, a women stands up in the section behind the USCU bench. "I'm his mom!" The women is normal in almost every way...except for flowing locks of permed hair. Next to her are Carter's two sisters. Also with perms. Hilarity ensues. The band feasts on this epic opportunity. One of their top performances to date.

As to the bolded part, we bring it pretty much at the women's games as well when we play those. Hardly anyone is at those, and we'll heckle someone over just about anything. One game I missed this past season featured one incident which didn't sit too well with the athletic department, but after hearing about it i thought it was pretty funny. Another classic goes back to when I was still in school (graduated in 2006) and in a women's game at West Pine (anyone in that building could hear anything you yelled) we noticed that one of the refs had to pull up his pants very frequently. He literally had to pull them up every time he ran down the court. Eventually we got to the point of yelling "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHH" every time he ran down the court, followed by "WOOOO!" every time he pulled his pants up. We sang "Hey Baby" with the lyrics of "Hey, Hey, Tommy! We wanna know, do you need a belt?" The ref himself was laughing as we sang to him, while swinging out belts in the air.

[Runnin'Billiken]

What was the second?

Another winter break game, 08-09 I think. Someone yelled, "Hey!! Do you know that your coach looks like _____". And I can't remember the name, but the guy was dead on, everyone knew it, and they lost it. I think it was Liberty. Some really big dude with a white jersey and a beer in both hands stood in our row. Guy was a riot the whole game.

[billikenfan05]

Another winter break game, 08-09 I think. Someone yelled, "Hey!! Do you know that your coach looks like _____". And I can't remember the name, but the guy was dead on, everyone knew it, and they lost it. I think it was Liberty. Some really big dude with a white jersey and a beer in both hands stood in our row. Guy was a riot the whole game.

I missed that game, f*** blockbuster!

[strozier]

During the Xavier game this year, 05 was the "S" and I was the "L". Being fully aware of this previous "incident", while in the tunnel waiting to go out, I threaten 05's life not to f*** with their bench. So we get going, and of course, Mario is out there watching like a hawk, with eyes that say "Just try it and so help me God...I will end you." And of course, being the dumb@$$ sh** disturber that he is, 05 proceeds to get as close as humanly possible to their bench without grazing them, and Mario is about to have a sh** fit. We did one fewer lap than usual as Mario heads towards the refs. What a crybaby. Classic.

I think whenever we get X@ Chaifetz that this tradition continues. I would actually like to see one of you guys dress up as Mario from Super Mario brothers and run around with the flag. I think he'd get it. I mean the guy is somewhat intelligent as he holds a degree from Xavier. Keep up the good work, guys.

[Box and Won]

This is not an undergrad memory, but still pretty funny.

I was at a game with a couple of friends, sitting right next to the student section. For some reason one of our fans is just giving it to Andrew Latimer - I don't know if Latimer stole the guy's girlfriend or what. He's constantly berating Latimer - "F--- you, Latimer, you're f-ing weak!" I'm talking a non-stop onslaught of F-bombs all directed at Latimer.

Then, a time out is called, and one of the promotions begins. It was sponsored by Hardee's, and a guy dressed like the Hardee's star came walking out onto the court. The guy who had been yelling at Latimer yells out, "F--- you, star!" and we all totally lost it. This probably happened more than ten years ago, and my friends and I still use the "F--- you, star!" line whenever we see each other.

[strozier]

This is not an undergrad memory, but still pretty funny.

I was at a game with a couple of friends, sitting right next to the student section. For some reason one of our fans is just giving it to Andrew Latimer - I don't know if Latimer stole the guy's girlfriend or what. He's constantly berating Latimer - "F--- you, Latimer, you're f-ing weak!" I'm talking a non-stop onslaught of F-bombs all directed at Latimer.

Then, a time out is called, and one of the promotions begins. It was sponsored by Hardee's, and a guy dressed like the Hardee's star came walking out onto the court. The guy who had been yelling at Latimer yells out, "F--- you, star!" and we all totally lost it. This probably happened more than ten years ago, and my friends and I still use the "F--- you, star!" line whenever we see each other.

haha! What about Carl's Jr.?

[bonwich]

I will say one thing. As much as I hate seeing our stands empty during breaks. Those are probably the most fun games for me because the other team and their fans can hear everything I say.

You should have been at some of the Echodome games in the late '70s when we had ice storms. There was one game in particular that we spent yelling requests to Ernie Hays (who was above the press box about 100 feet up) -- and he played every one.