I went to Gannon as an undergrad. And for those Erie peeps, you will remember especially in the 80's, Gannon became a Division II powerhouse. Well I was there. LOL...I also was the PG on an intramural team that had a few of the guys who sat out during their transfer years. It was fun, I was always an OK hooper, but I really got so much better in college playing against guys who were transfers from ND, Providence, UNLV, etc...
Anyways....we started a tradition (short lived) of papering the court with toilet paper after the first basket. Now this wasn't totally original, but we really took it to another level. It became legendary. Seriously, we got written up in Street and Smiths BB preview magazine, Dick Vitale even singled us out as best atmosphere outside of the big schools. We got quite a rep and it Gannon had some great teams, my Jr year we went to the DII finals. We went to the Elite 8 I believe 3 years in a row, hosting playoff games. Anyways..........as you can see from the photo below, this was one of our first attempts. It was hilarious, we stole EVERY toilet paper role from EVERY public restroom on campus. Every one. It papered it. This just started it, trust me, for like 2-3 minutes it followed.
Best part. There was hell to pay. The next day, ONE person gets charged with offense. ME! Only me! Because they knew I was part of it, so they figured I would rat out the others. As they say in Goodfellas, the two most important things, "you always keep your mouth shut and you don't rat out your friends." I didn't. I took the punishment. I didn't rat anyone else out. The punishment......Which............was not that bad and to be honest, I knew I could use this as capital with folks.. Man, I also gained some major status with pretty much every one on campus, never really having to buy drinks, I was friends with alot of the hoops guys anyways......but just thinking back on some recollections it is now like 30 years ago this happened.
Anyways....we started a tradition (short lived) of papering the court with toilet paper after the first basket. Now this wasn't totally original, but we really took it to another level. It became legendary. Seriously, we got written up in Street and Smiths BB preview magazine, Dick Vitale even singled us out as best atmosphere outside of the big schools. We got quite a rep and it Gannon had some great teams, my Jr year we went to the DII finals. We went to the Elite 8 I believe 3 years in a row, hosting playoff games. Anyways..........as you can see from the photo below, this was one of our first attempts. It was hilarious, we stole EVERY toilet paper role from EVERY public restroom on campus. Every one. It papered it. This just started it, trust me, for like 2-3 minutes it followed.
Best part. There was hell to pay. The next day, ONE person gets charged with offense. ME! Only me! Because they knew I was part of it, so they figured I would rat out the others. As they say in Goodfellas, the two most important things, "you always keep your mouth shut and you don't rat out your friends." I didn't. I took the punishment. I didn't rat anyone else out. The punishment......Which............was not that bad and to be honest, I knew I could use this as capital with folks.. Man, I also gained some major status with pretty much every one on campus, never really having to buy drinks, I was friends with alot of the hoops guys anyways......but just thinking back on some recollections it is now like 30 years ago this happened.
