Hours before the football Wildcats fell to then-No. 25 Michigan, one purple-clad team came out on top.
Northwestern’s purple squad defeated the white 27-19 in a 15-minute, intrasquad scrimmage that kicked off NU’s fifth-annual Halloween HOOP-la at Welsh-Ryan Arena on Saturday.
The hour-long event featured both the men’s and women’s teams, along with NU alum Michael Wilbon, columnist for The Washington Post and co-host of ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption.” Wilbon, a 1980 Medill graduate, riled up between 600 and 700 rowdy and raucus fans who turned out to show preseason support for NU’s main winter sports.
“There was no school spirit for sports when I was here,” Wilbon said after the event. “It’s like a different place – This is stunning.”
After starting off HOOP-la to a standing ovation, Wilbon introduced the women’s team and turned the microphone over to coach Beth Combs. Combs, who went 5-25 in her first year at NU, wasted no time in firing up the already energized crowd with a passionate speech.
The women’s team then gave way to the men’s squad, which went 15-16 last season and fell one win short of postseason eligibility.
After Wilbon introduced the team, coach Bill Carmody took center stage. While the reserved Carmody admitted he wasn’t the type to fire up the crowd, he gave the visitors reason for excitement when he said he wanted to turn the Cats’ home winning percentage from 75 last year to 100 in 2005-06.
Senior guard Michael Jenkins, a former walk-on, then said he hoped NU would “do something we’ve never done before” – go to the NCAA tournament.
Though the estimated turnout was about the same as last year, marketing assistant Beth Cunningham said it was mostly due to people shuffling in and out of the arena because of the football game. Last season’s HOOP-la came after the Cats’ 13-10 homecoming win against Purdue.
Cunningham said attendance was helped by football and the presence of Wilbon, who was in town to watch the homecoming game before he flew to New York the next morning to cover the Washington Redskins against the New York Giants.
“We’ve always wanted to try to get a celebrity emcee knowing that that would hopefully be a bigger draw,” Cunningham said. “And he was just a perfect fit. He’s a huge Northwestern alum but someone who takes pride in the fact that he’s an alum.”
Though a shooting contest and the scrimmage replaced last year’s festivities – which included a pie-eating contest, a basketball-spinning contest and a French rap from former NU guard T.J. Parker – some NU players said they were too tired after more than two hours of pre-HOOP-la practice to dazzle the crowd.
Instead they were cool and confident, aiming to drum up support as they try to surprise the Big Ten and make the postseason for the first time since 1998-99.
“It was good,” Carmody said. “It was just a nice kickoff kind of thing. It ruined half my practice, but what are you gonna do?”
Reach Patrick Dorsey at [email protected].
