The Purdue Exponent


Monday, 4/02/2001	5 day quick link 3/30 \| 3/29 \| 3/28 \| 3/27 \| 3/26

Fans gather at Union, bars to cheer Boilers

Lisa Trubiana/Senior Photographer

CAN'T FACE IT: A fan at Jake's Roadhouse reacts with displeasure after Purdue's 68-66 loss to Notre Dame.

By Megan Finnerty
and Sarah Szczepanski

Kenneth Milef, a Lafayette resident, was pounding his fist on the table as he watched the game in the Purdue Memorial Union with 200 other fans.

"You call that a foul? Ref, where are you from…Kentucky?" said Milef, who watches every broadcasted game. "Let's play some defense; be like glue stuck on a piece of lint."

Milef loves the University, but he said it wasn’t just about Purdue’s basketball team.

"It says a lot for Indiana basketball."

Wearing a white T-shirt with "Indiana" written across the front, Marisol Cisneros, a fourth year pharmacy student, said it was a major day for the state. "It does a lot. The women basketball players are showing they can make it, and that they can do it," she said.

She paused to watch a replay of the final shot. "Oh, it was so close…It would have been nice if we won."

For junior in the School of Nursing Shannon Stoffl, whose hometown is South Bend, Ind., the game was about more than a Purdue championship; it was about bragging rights with her Notre Dame friends. "If we lose to anyone, please don’t let it be them," she said midway through the second half. "They will never let me live it down."

Amanda Fisher, a senior in the School of Nursing, said the women were excellent representatives of the University. "They’re doing an awesome job — I’m proud of them."

The scene at the bars was less contemplative and a little more rowdy.

Early Sunday evening, fans started gathering at Jake's Roadhouse and by 8 p.m. there were no seats. Bob Hartman, a senior in the School of Management, arrived at 4:30 p.m.

"I was the first person here," he said, raising his beer glass. "I knew we had to get here early to get a good seat."

Fans broke into "Hail Purdue" at the half and throughout the game and, tired of that, they chanted "Boi-lers, Boi-lers," pounding their fists.

Jason Reed, a junior in the School of Education, arrived at Jake's at 3 p.m. "We got the cheering section over there," he said gesturing to a table of 17 of his friends as he ordered a pitcher of New Castle. "We’re drinkin' the good stuff on a night like tonight."

Jason Brawn, a junior at Notre Dame, came to Purdue, he said, to start something. "I came to visit my friends and root on the other team," he said, smiling. "I came to cause a little problem, start a little action."

When Purdue's Katie Douglas made a layup and drew a foul with 1:24 left in the game, fans on Harry's second floor stomped and chanted, "Let's go Boi-lers" as fans downstairs cautiously peered at the ceiling.

But as the Boilers' last hope bounced off the rim, it seemed as if everyone in the bar exhaled in unison.

"It's pretty quiet in here right now and this just sucks," said Justin Gard, a senior in the School of Liberal Arts. "I'm ready to go home right now."

But he didn't, and neither did most fans. Fans screamed, "Let's get drunk" at Jake's minutes after the game.

And by the end of the night, Harry's was crammed full of more people than had watched the game and a water and whipped cream fight broke out.

The game was over, but for many fans, the night was just beginning

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