By Talia AlbertsThe Daily Northwestern
A new color appeared among all the red and blue at Wrigley Field on Tuesday night – purple.
Tuesday was NU Day at the home of the Chicago Cubs. About 1,500 students filed into the stadium, some in their purple NU Day T-shirts and others in Cubs jerseys, to watch the Cubs take on the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The event was co-sponsored by the Northwestern Alumni Association, Northwestern Class Alliance and Center for Student Involvement. Tickets sold out at the Norris Box Office days before the event.
Although about 1,500 tickets were also sold for last year’s game, Weinberg sophomore Nate West, Northwestern Class Alliance’s vice president of programming, said there were more attendees at this year’s event.
West said NU Day continued the tradition of NU T-shirts, having a student throw out a first pitch and having an a cappella group sing the national anthem.
“One of our main goals is to promote school unity,” said West, who is also student services vice president for the Associated Student Government. “This is one of the ways we see best to do that, and it is our biggest event to promote school unity.”
At one point during the game, a group of students even started chanting “Go U! NU!” to the chagrin of some Cubs fans.
McCormick senior Alec Davis, a former Daily columnist, won the opportunity to throw the first pitch at an April 30 talent and trivia bar night, for which he wrote and sang a song.
The other NU representatives on the field were the a cappella group Freshman 15.
Weinberg senior Eli Goodman, the group’s artistic director, said Freshman 15 submitted an arrangement of the national anthem and an essay on why they should be the group to sing on NU Day.
“It was absolutely exhilarating,” Goodman said. “There were more people than I’ve ever performed in front of before. I empathize with pro athletes now because you could feel so much pressure. It was indescribable.”
Matthew Kutnick, a Weinberg sophomore, said he enjoyed NU Day for the second year in a row, despite being a Yankees fan.
“I’m a baseball fan,” Kutnick said. “It’s always a good time to go to a game, and it’s fun to see people you know (when they aren’t) at school.”
Medill sophomore Amanda Woerner also attended last year’s NU Day and said she was happy to be back. She said she inherited her support of the Cubs from her parents, who are both from Chicago.
“A ton of kids come and they don’t even need to publicize,” Woerner said. “It’s well known and tickets are cheap. People get pretty excited, and there are long lines and lots of scrambling to get tickets.”
Others, such as Weinberg freshman Christine Charhut, were first timers at Wrigley Field.
“I’ve never been to a Cubs game before, and I decided that I had to go before the end of the year,” Charhut said. “Since everyone was going for NU Day, I thought it would be a fun time to go.”
Charhut said she is a Cubs fan mainly because her dad is from Chicago and is obsessed with the team. She said her favorite part of the evening was watching the wild Wrigley Field crowd.
The game went into extra innings, lasting until about midnight. Unfortunately for all the Cubs fans, the home team lost 4-3 to the Pirates after 15 innings.
Reach Talia Alberts at [email protected].
