For those of you who haven’t heard the announcement yet, Loyola just named Sheryl Swoopes as the women’s basketball head coach. One of the first stars of the WNBA, Swoopes is a three-time MVP and a three-time Olympic gold medalist. And, yes, she is also the first woman to have her own Nike basketball shoe named after her—Air Swoopes.
Hearing the news took me back to my high school days of playing basketball and college days when I remember her winning a national championship. The thoughts of the WNBA being announced come to mind too. As a fan, I am grateful for what she has done for the sport. As a new colleague, I hope she doesn’t challenge new friends and colleagues across campus to any one-on-one match ups!
Since 2009, I have never seen Loyola win at the buzzer. But I have seen many close games. However I have never seen anything as heartbreaking as what the men from the Loyola Basketball team had to face this year.
Not one or even two buzzer beater losses but eight. And of the rest of the losses 5 more were lost in the last 2 minutes of the game.
I look forward to the future and hope that this was due to a very young team being that they are the 3rd youngest in the NCAA.
Loyola Basketball is almost wear they should be! While people have made jokes about the team’s performance for years, the team is about to turn a corner.
They have the potential to take it to the next level. Personally, I think within the next 3 years you will be seeing them in the NCAA tournament. As the ramblers will only be loosing two players from the roster this year.
Coach Porter Moser is leading this young team in the right direction with players like Devon Turk who is averaging 10 points per game as a Freshman.
I look forward to the future!
I forgot to mention, I am in charge of the student section so please join me in supporting the ramblers as they literally win our hearts.
Have you heard the news?? BOTH men’s and women’s cross country team won first place at their conference meet on Saturday!!! They were phenomenal!
Considering two of my roommates run cross country and track for Loyola, I am very involved in following how the cross country team does and I am an avid fan. But because of the nature of the sport, my support usually has to stop at the door of our apartment. The cross country team only has one home meet and most others are far away so it is not often that I get to cheer on my roommates in person. But this weekend I got the chance!
Their conference meet was in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Kenosha is about an hour away from campus so we knew it was not too far away and were prepared to borrow a friends car to drive there. We found out a few weeks ago though that the school would be providing a bus to transport any students who wanted to go cheer on our Ramblers for free! It was awesome!
The bus left campus at 9:00 am Saturday and by 10:30 we were at the course in Kenosha ready to cheer on the team! The girls ran first and did amazing. My roommates came in 2nd and 15th overall with times of 18:03 and 18:51 for the 5K. They did so good that both of them qualified to go to regionals and will be racing in two weeks in Missouri.
Not only did both teams win first, but Loyola runners won first in the individual division as well! GinaValgoi came in first for the women with a time of 17:05. For the men, Sam Penzenstadler finished first in the 8K with a time of 24:59.
We are super excited to see how our Ramblers match up at the regional meet November 9, 2012.
We came to cheer on Mary Whitmore (middle) who finished with a time of 18:51. Celebrating her amazing race by lifting her up!
This past Wednesday the 2012-2013 Loyola Men’s Volleyball team played against a very strong Russian national team.
For a exhibition game there were a ton of students in attendance and the game was among the best that I have seen while . Sure it is not quite the same without the old Alumni Arena but the Men’s Volleyball team hits the new digs really nicely.
NCAA Champions maybe? We will find out, but with the 50th anniversary and lots of prospects, it is looking like a promising year.
This is one of our newest additions to the Rambler Row in the Norville Center.
It stands about 3 feet tall and sits at about the midway point in Rambler Row but it is actually much different than the original.
This is the NCAA Nations Championship trophy, but if you look closely it is actually only partially the original piece. The original was damaged by some poor handling by the university in the 90s.
This past summer is was rectified and saved. The Athletic Department has rebuilt it and put it up for display so that this University can be proud of our history and look forward to the days to come.
This weekend was the only home meet for Loyola’s Cross Country team which meant I got to see two of my roommates run! The Sean Earl Invitational was held at Montrose Beach on Saturday. We couldn’t have asked for a better day, it was beautiful, sunny and 75 degrees.
We arrived at the meet and immediately sought out Mary and Alyvia, my roommates who are on the team. The girls 5k race started promptly at 11:45 and didn’t last long! It was a struggle for my friends and I to make it to different spots on the course in time to see the girls run because they were so fast. Before I knew it, we were watching the girls cross the finish line.
Mary ran a 19.31, which was 32 seconds faster than last year when she ran that course and Alyvia ran her personal record at 17:53! To top it all off, the Loyola girls team finished in second overall. It was a great day for the girls!
The boys race began at 12:15 and they did just as good as the girls team! At the end of the 8k, the boys finished fourth overall with Sam Penzenstadler in first for Loyola with a time of 25.02!
It was a great day and I had so much fun watching my friends run. Check out some of the pictures we got at the meet!
Mary and I after her race. The Rambler girls huddle before their race.
With a rebuilt program and many changes to the lineup I am very excited for this coming basketball season. The Ramblers are ready to strike and have the guns to do it. Now it is up to the student body to jump on the wagon and cheer this team to victory.
We have the size on our roster and we have the skill now we need to put it together with some wins!
While I usually talk about what is going on at Loyola and ways of improving your Loyola experience, this time I would like to address a more important topic. Loyola prides itself on diversity and in 1963 we proved to the world that we live up to our words.
50 years ago Loyola University became the first team to start 4 African-Americans on its starting line up for NCAA Men’s Basketball, many people had problems with the act but few responded.
The team started the year ranked 3rd in the nation and went on to remain undefeated at home and made it to the NCAA Tournament. It was what happened here that has forever changed the sport of basketball.
The Ramblers started their push with a record setting victory over Tennessee Tech winning 111-42 in the first round of the tournament. This still remains the largest margin of victory in any NCAA D1 game.
They then were scheduled to face the Mississippi State Bulldogs in the Sweet Sixteen. Due to the fact that we had African-American starters the Governor of Mississippi bared the team from leaving the state and refused to allow them to play us. After much debate the team was snuck out of the state to play and Loyola eventually ended up winning what is now know as the Game of Change.
That year not only did our Loyola Ramblers changed basketball and we must thank the Bulldogs for helping us in our endeavor of changing the game but we went on to win the National Championship and showed the world what it means to be Rambler Proud.
Being the 50th Anniversary of that year this year has much in store with a fully rebuilt team and program ready to strike at the Nation once again.
It seems that Fall and football Saturdays are a trademark of the American college experience. Because of this, one of the big questions family and friends from home often ask me is: do you wish Loyola had a football team?
I never quite know how to answer. To be honest, there are times when I see pictures on Facebook of my friends tailgating in cute, school-spirited outfits and at football games where there are thousands of people all cheering on the same team, and I find myself jealous. I have to then ask myself the question, would I give up the Loyola city lifestyle for fall football games?
The answer is always the same: never!
I had the opportunity to visit some high school friends at Michigan State University this weekend. They had a home game against Ohio State and I got to be involved in all of the tailgating and game watching I always get jealous of.
I had a really good time! It was fun and really good to see some old friends. It did, however, reinforce my feelings that I would not trade schools even if I had the chance to.
My friends at Michigan State University do get to participate in football activities for a number of weeks in the Fall, but then football ends in November and its all over until the next year. Chicago has a never ending list of things going on and activities to do.
For sport fans, we may not a football team but we do have the Chicago Bears and the Chicago Cubs. We also have Loyola athletic teams such as soccer, volleyball, cross country, basketball, golf, rugby, and many more.
Aside from sports, Chicago always seems to have something new and exciting to do on the weekend. Next weekend, for example, I have family coming into town from Nebraska (because everyone always wants to visit you when you live in Chicago!) The following weekend I am going to Loyola’s Lakefront Cross Country meet to cheer on our Ramblers. Then on Sunday I am participating in the AIDS run/walk.
I enjoyed my time being a Michigan State Spartan for a day, but I am glad to be back at Loyola for the next few weeks and look forward to the rest of the semester!
I got to be a Spartan for the day with my best high school friends!
