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Went to a Jesuit high school, didn't have the grades to get into UT. Knew that the Jesuit colleges all gave money to Jesuit high school kids; SLU was the best school I got into and they gave the most money, it had the best athletics program of the schools applied to (which isn't saying much, but the others were LMU and Spring Hill), wanted to try out what having four seasons a year is like, and I liked the color blue. 

First game I went to as a freshman, got bused down to Scottrade to see Kevin Lisch almost single-handedly upset #10 ranked Xavier in the final minute. Didn't miss a home game the rest of my time at SLU besides my semester in Spain. 

At the UH game this year, I was in line to get beer with another alum, wearing SLU gear, and some Cougar fans behind us kept chirping at us "to go back to St. Louis," and the confusion on their face as we explained that we were both from Texas and still live here really messed with their heads. 

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Reading through these it seems like a lot of people have the connection of going to games with their dad growing up.  IMO that is something SLU can / should use to grow the next generation of fans.  Get dads to bring their kids to games.

My story is pretty similar.  My dad went to SLU for undergrad and law school.  He bought season tickets sometime in the early 80s and was going to games before I was born.  I know I went to games before the Claggett / Highmark era, but those are the first games and players that I really remember.  I can still remember where our seats were at the Arena.  Claggs will always be my #1 favorite because he was my favorite as a little kid.  Best memory of a game I've seen in person was knocking off #2 Louisville followed closely by Kwamain's bank shot vs Dayton on Mardi Gras.  I applied to SLU, but Rockhurst was cheaper and I got more scholarship $ plus it was away from home.  Haven't been able to get to as many games lately with my own kiddos now (I have no idea how my dad consistently brought us to games when me and my siblings were all little), but I'm looking forward to when mine are a little older and I can share SLU basketball with them.

Edit: Forgot to add that Easy Ed was like my grandma's 3rd cousin or something, so there is sort of a natural connection between our family and SLU basketball, but it was really going to games with my dad that made me a fan.

Question for anyone on the board who is a SLU alum and wasn't already a fan going in.  What got you to go to games while you were a student or got you interested SLU basketball? 

Edited by RUBillsFan
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Never went to SLU... Became a fan , alot had to do with Stipo , , DeSmet and Grawer...When Grawer was named coach, that did it for me...Wrote him a letter, he replied , sent a t-shirt , business , stickers...Still have the letter he sent , asking to help spread the wors

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I went to Stanford. For the past 10 years I thought this was a chat forum for SLUH, my former high school. Just now realized it was for SLU. (BLUE FONT)

I received an undergrad degree from THE Saint Louis University and was always a SLU hoops fan growing up in St. Louis.

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36 minutes ago, Slu let the dogs out? said:

I went to Stanford. For the past 10 years I thought this was a chat forum for SLUH, my former high school. Just now realized it was for SLU. (BLUE FONT)

I received an undergrad degree from THE Saint Louis University and was always a SLU hoops fan growing up in St. Louis.

What years @ sluh?

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Went to SLU and got lucky enough to get a federal work study job on the athletic event staff so I helped set up and work all the different sporting events. Got to meet and work alongside some of the great people in the department. Played basketball in high school and it's always been my favorite sport so it was easy to become a die hard SLU fanatic.  After going on that student trip to Butler and beating the brakes off them in Hinkle I was hooked. One of my good buddies @gobillsgo introduced me to the board (Admittedly he's been a fan for longer than me) and I've hung around ever since. Now I live, breath, and eat SLU hoops. Got my family on the SLU hoops train and try to get more every chance I can. I hope to see SLU basketball blossom into something epic someday. 

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When we were really young, my brother and I would pretend to be Anthony Bonner whenever we played basketball or anything resembling it. I still remember his squeaky voice "Anthony Bonner!" and then he'd try to rhyme Bonner with other made-up words. I didn't really start paying attention to them, though, until I was about 10 or 11 and the Claggett-Highmark-Waldman team had just formed and put together a few strong seasons. After that, I started going to games with my friend Brian and his parents - @GMan Alum played baseball at SLU back in the day, and we bonded over SLU games (well, and me hanging out at their house everyday). We still slide immediately into SLU talk when we see each other.

Then when it was time for college, I was pretty sure all along I'd leave town. I applied to Stanford (reach - didn't get in), Santa Clara, Richmond, Butler, DePauw, Denver, and SLU - as a safety school. It came down to SLU, Richmond, and Butler, and SLU just kept finding more money for me. My freshman year at SLU cost less than any year at Chaminade, and Chaminade tuition was about 1/3 of what it costs now. My first week on campus, I met the head manager at the time and we started talking basketball. He asked if I'd be interested in being a manager, so I interviewed with Coach Romar, Tubby Smith interrupted our interview to tell him about a recruit he might take a look at, Romar asked me to cut my ridiculous looking hair, and I started the next week. It wound up being his last season, so the next three were under Soderberg. SLU Basketball was a full time job for me.

My parents usually used my two "player will call" tickets for every home game and they really got into it. Two of my three younger siblings followed me to SLU, although only my brother overlapped with me for two years (my sisters were 6 and 10 classes behind me and the older one went to UMSL). It was pretty cool when we beat Bonaventure and made the Tournament. My brother watched the Bonaventure and VT game from London, where he was chaperoning a class trip. My youngest sister was in Phoenix for work. Family texts were flying all over the world that week. It's cool to have the SLU tradition so tied to my family.

I got season tickets for Chaifetz the first year it opened, even though I lived in Cincinnati at the time. I kept those for two seasons while I lived here, then I moved back to STL for two years, and I gave them up after the 2012 season because I moved back here. Like the rest of you, I continue to follow them obsessively in any way I can. I make as many road games as possible but it's getting harder with a toddler at home and a baby on the way. Dayton is my one guaranteed road trip each year. My wife is a big college basketball fan, too, and has Xavier season tickets with her dad and sister, so we have an understanding that when one of our teams is playing, the other one handles childcare duties. I get the short end of the bargain when a SLU game is at the same time as a Xavier home game, so my son doesn't get my A-game dad stuff when that happens. He'll be 3 in June, so he's still several years from actually wanting to watch the games with me for more than a few minutes at a time, but hopefully he gets interested and I can make SLU his top team instead of Xavier.

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7 hours ago, almaman said:

What years @ sluh?

I didn't go to SLUH, I went to a different MCC school (1997-2001). The SLUH bit was necessary for my horrible joke...

I also did not go to Stanford. Again, part of a cringeworthy "joke". Did drive by Stanford once. I could smell the smartness.

 

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I am an alum.  My wife went to SLU.  All three of my siblings (brothers) went to SLU.  My wife's only sibling (brother-in-law) went to SLU.  My two sisters-in-law that are married to my brothers went to SLU.  My father went to SLU.  My mother didn't go to SLU, but worked for SLU for 25 to 30 years.  I have two aunts and four uncles that went to SLU.  Of my four uncles that went to SLU, two played on the basketball team.  One was on the 1948 NIT team.

That's why.  Boom.  Drop the mic.

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23 minutes ago, cgeldmacher said:

I am an alum.  My wife went to SLU.  All three of my siblings (brothers) went to SLU.  My wife's only sibling (brother-in-law) went to SLU.  My two sisters-in-law that are married to my brothers went to SLU.  My father went to SLU.  My mother didn't go to SLU, but worked for SLU for 25 to 30 years.  I have two aunts and four uncles that went to SLU.  Of my four uncles that went to SLU, two played on the basketball team.  One was on the 1948 NIT team.

That's why.  Boom.  Drop the mic.

I will try to match this. I have 2 degree's from SLU. My wife has 2 degree's from SLU. One of my sons has 2 degree's from SLU. His wife has 1 degree from SLU. My other son has 1 degree from SLU and his wife has 1 degree and a MD from SLU. My sister and her husband have SLU degrees. My 2 dogs applied to SLU but got rejected. 

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6 minutes ago, willie said:

I will try to match this. I have 2 degree's from SLU. My wife has 2 degree's from SLU. One of my sons has 2 degree's from SLU. His wife has 1 degree from SLU. My other son has 1 degree from SLU and his wife has 1 degree and a MD from SLU. My sister and her husband have SLU degrees. My 2 dogs applied to SLU but got rejected. 

Nice.  My wife and I both have 2 degrees each as well.  So, you and I are both in the four degrees in the household club.

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Mine is simple: Always been a fan of Jesuit teams who wear blue (grew up going to Creighton games during the Dana Altman/Kyle Korver era). I went to SLU during one of the best times to be a Billiken fan (Fall 2008 to Spring 2012).

Also, since I've been following them, there's always been some eye candy on the team, which doesn't hurt. Am I right guys???

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Grew up in St. Louis and first memories of SLU are listening to the games when I was very young with Dick Boushka (side point at least I know how to pronounce his name, unlike Guy P. when we had a moment of silence for DB's passing-how poor that was to hear GP not know how to pronounce Dick's name).  My parents never had a connection to SLU or enough money to take me to games so I listened to many as I grew up.  I remember Jim Mclaughlin a 6'3 C who might still hold rebounding records, Grady Smith, from Puxico, Joe Todd from Morehouse, Harold Alcorn from McKinley HS and a few others from that era.

I went to SLU and can't remember missing any, if any, games while a student.  It was a big event for my fraternity to go to the games and gather at Rossino's afterwards.  While I lost touch with the team due to my time away from STL due to being in the service, I nonetheless always watched for scores in USAToday or papers where I was stationed.  Upon leaving the service, small kids had started populating my family so I didn't get to many games but I liked the Grawer hire and bought season tickets for his first year and have had them ever since, even in years when I was working outside the STL area.

A few favorite SLU non-basketball team memories:  

The Campus Club, which was replaced by the modern Busch Memorial Center that had no redeeming values with regard to campus life; 

The Trumpeteers, what a tremendous tradition that was somehow allowed to die.  4-8 trumpet players walking through the aisles and even into the concession areas, only to reappear in the main auditorium all the while playing "When the Bills Go Marching In."  Talk about getting the fans into the game!  That was so much better than some of the forced efforts being employed now for such things as doing the Wave which has only been out of date for 10-15 years.  My recollection is that there wasn't a fan sitting down while the Trumpeteers were doing their thing. 

I am really enjoying the new Ford era which includes the best recruiting I can ever remember with its emphasis on local area kids. I hope/think we can keep him and look forward to returning to the NCAA in two years (not next year)

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My wife and I both graduated from SLU in 1973.  Been a big bb supporter from Ekker through and including Tford.  Travel to support the team often.  Traveled to New York for the A-10 tournament this year.  We had a great time.  Used to carry Westy03 to the games with me along with his brother Davito.  

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51 minutes ago, willie said:

I will try to match this. I have 2 degree's from SLU. My wife has 2 degree's from SLU. One of my sons has 2 degree's from SLU. His wife has 1 degree from SLU. My other son has 1 degree from SLU and his wife has 1 degree and a MD from SLU. My sister and her husband have SLU degrees. My 2 dogs applied to SLU but got rejected. 

-what's the problem with your dogs?

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