Return to Horton

[crazzymark]

This game was in 1989 and Zwart was a coach at the time. Are you referring to the last game at Horton or another game

No the game was at DePaul and the head coach was Donawald

 

[Total Red]

Acknowledge any alumni players at halftime by name.

+1!

 

[MadBird]

I was at that game and I went into the back with the team and the coaches, they had Ray Myers celebration already set up in the ballroom next to the arena so when Mark's Zwart got ran over in the lane and they called blocking foul it wasn't surprising cuz it was going to be a win no matter what happened

Not sure how Crazy got the two games mixed up, this thread is talking about the last Horton game with the phantom 3 point shot. Crazy was talking about a game at the old Horizon (Allstate Arena now), and I was there with a good friend who was a DePaul fan, where old Ray Meyer was going for some milestone career win - 600 or 700 - and there were some crap calls or non-calls down the stretch handing the game over to DePaul. And the horn had hardly finished sounding when they rolled a big cake out to center court celebrating old Ray's big win and it sure looked funny that they were so well prepared for a win. That was a good rivalry back in the day. Would love to see it start up again.

 

[SgtHulka]

So here's my idea for this yearly game.....call it Winter Homecoming.

Try and get an opponent that would really rev up the crowd but not a conference team. Loyola (IL), Wichita State, Creighton perhaps.
Have some events leading up to it (tailgating? / taste of redbirds in the North Gym).
Acknowledge any alumni players at halftime by name.
Have the WBB play afterwards.
Keep it the weekend before finals too.
Continue to include Doug Collins as much as possible!.

Will add my Horton Zone Promo from the other thread
And rename the dance team back to the. Corfee's (sic?)

 

[SgtHulka]

Also, someone needs to teach Pedon the slouched legs and arms crossed angry pose Bob used to use.

Need to get Tulsa to come and talk their coach into wearing a polka dot shirt
Or any team with a white permed haired coach we can mock

 

[Adunk33]

+1!

If anything to complain about from yesterday, it’d be halftime. These former players came back to be honored and recognized and all they got was awkwardly trotted out to mid court and the PA saying something like “Let’s hear it for the former players,” they took a photo, and walked off.

Taylor Bruninga was in the building and walked on the floor with his pal Matt Chastain. I thought it was weird we were applauding for an SIUE pitcher…

 

[Redbird28]

So here's my idea for this yearly game.....call it Winter Homecoming.

Try and get an opponent that would really rev up the crowd but not a conference team. Loyola (IL), Wichita State, Creighton perhaps.
Have some events leading up to it (tailgating? / taste of redbirds in the North Gym).
Acknowledge any alumni players at halftime by name.
Have the WBB play afterwards.
Keep it the weekend before finals too.
Continue to include Doug Collins as much as possible!.

Mel - they pay people for ideas like this, man. You shouldn't be giving them away for free on message boards.

Seriously though, great idea.

 

[DougSutton]

So here's my idea for this yearly game.....call it Winter Homecoming.

Try and get an opponent that would really rev up the crowd but not a conference team. Loyola (IL), Wichita State, Creighton perhaps.
Have some events leading up to it (tailgating? / taste of redbirds in the North Gym).
Acknowledge any alumni players at halftime by name.
Have the WBB play afterwards.
Keep it the weekend before finals too.
Continue to include Doug Collins as much as possible!.

Love the ideas. The only things I would offer to consider is that from my perspective, why not go with Bradley or SIU? Those would be my preference AND, I'm sure with the success of this last game, we could expand the bleachers on the north end to equal what a previously full Horton was.

I doubt we get DePaul, Wichita State, Tulsa or Creighton, each would be a great throwback game but it doesn't seem as realistic to get these teams here.

I fully support women's athletics however I personally don't support the idea of them playing after, possibly before if it's on a Saturday. I consider the men's basketball game the primetime event.


Side note, I live in San Diego Country and just got an electric mountain bike (these things are incredibly fun!). There are some amazing trails about 30 minutes from my home and I went to one yesterday before the game by myself. I ran into a group of guys on eMountain bikes that let me ride with them. One of the guys is from Chicago, graduated from Bradley in 1988 (same year as Hersey Hawkins) and said he went to Horton Field House a few times and it was one of the best atmospheres he ever experienced in sports. We talked about how our student section used to wear the cotton wigs to act like Dick Versace, etc. and both talked about how fun it would be to have Bradley go back there for a game.

So for me personally, my vote is to play Bradley at Horton as much as possible with all else that Mel mentioned and if possible, we could do a doubleheader on a Saturday with women opening up against Bradley earlier that day.

As mentioned, we could expand the north seating to what they used to be and this event would absolutely sell out every year. If and when Illinois State rises our program again where we could legitimately sell out Redbird Arena for this game, then we can move that game over there but until then, this would be an awesome annual event.

Then, we choose the next tier opponent that would not sell out Redbird Arena and have that game in Horton each year. One game at Horton per year would be incredible!

 

[fdbird83]

Will add my Horton Zone Promo from the other thread
And rename the dance team back to the. Corfee's (sic?)

I see the Coryphees have their own facebook page with some great pictures from the past.

Illinois State University Coryphees | Facebook

We marched, we danced, we kicked in the rain, sleet in snow. We wore hot plastic boots and satin shirts with fringe. We traveled on buses to Cleveland, Green Bay, Chicago and many more. We were the...

www.facebook.com

 

[Baltimore Bird]

I remember when one of my buddies was dating a Coryphee. 1979 ish. I was so JEALOUS!

 

[fdbird83]

I remember when one of my buddies was dating a Coryphee. 1979 ish. I was so JEALOUS!

I was jealous of anyone that could spell Coryphee correctly.

 

[BirdGrad2011]

Love the ideas. The only things I would offer to consider is that from my perspective, why not go with Bradley or SIU? Those would be my preference AND, I'm sure with the success of this last game, we could expand the bleachers on the north end to equal what a previously full Horton was.

Hard pass to a conference game. If Illinois State basketball truly gets back to what we know it can/will be then Horton will not hold a big enough crowd for Bradley. I highly doubt any league team would agree to it and having our juiced up crowd in an environment like that.

 

[Metamoron]

Leave it non-con game. Don’t include it as season tix. Give season tix holders with most points first dibs on tix. Of course X number of tix for students. If it continues to gain in popularity, people will want to buy season tix and increase their giving so they can get seats to this game.

 

[RedbirdSoxFan]

Hard pass to a conference game. If Illinois State basketball truly gets back to what we know it can/will be then Horton will not hold a big enough crowd for Bradley. I highly doubt any league team would agree to it and having our juiced up crowd in an environment like that.

Just curious, does the visiting team have a choice as to where the home team chooses to play their home game?

 

[MadBird]

Just curious, does the visiting team have a choice as to where the home team chooses to play their home game?

Yes, my question too. I'm guessing no, but then again . . . . things are weird these days.

 

[DougSutton]

Hard pass to a conference game. If Illinois State basketball truly gets back to what we know it can/will be then Horton will not hold a big enough crowd for Bradley. I highly doubt any league team would agree to it and having our juiced up crowd in an environment like that.

If you read the rest of my post, I was clear that we would only do this/these games at Horton until we got to a point where we would sell out past capacity, then we would of course go to Redbird Arena. As I also mentioned as a caveat, my sense is that we could expand the north seating to match what the old days of Horton had. Our minimum seating capacity at Horton could be 8,500.

For context, last year's Bradley game at home had 4,072 in attendance. If this game was at Horton, we would have had more than 4,072 fans and even with the same number, the atmosphere would have been much better.

So far, our home attendance this year has been:
Wooster 1,010
Western Illinois 4,133
Northwestern State 3,098
Belmont 3,165
Eastern Michigan 3,331
SIUE 3,420

Ask any player or fan that has been to home games this year what game had the best atmosphere and I guarantee you that there isn't any hesitation to answer the game at Horton. Some of our kids said it's the best atmosphere they ever participated in.

Until we can consistently and reliably get more than 8,500 fans to pack Horton, I would much, much rather have a packed Horton with an incredible atmosphere and loud fans than to be in a half filled, lethargic Redbird Arena. The acoustics in Redbird Arena are not near as conducive to create a hostile environment for opposing teams. Yes, fans would have to give up the nicer bathrooms and concession area.

The question about whether a conference opponent (or any opponent) can dictate to us what facility we can use is a different question that I don't know the answer to.

Otherwise, 100% no question in my mind that if you asked the players, coaches and fans where they would rather watch or participate in a game for the biggest, most nostalgic rivalry game on our schedule in any year, it would be Bradley at Horton Field House over any other game or venue.

Again, as I said, once we build our program to the level that we are consistently selling out these games and we have no more capacity, absolutely positively move those games to Redbird and then find the next "tier" of opponent to play at Horton Field House.

 

[DougSutton]

For the 2021 - 2022 season, here was our home attendance:
UNC Wilmington 2,642
Murray State 2,904
Bucknell. 2,576
Purdue Northwest. 1,042
Missouri State 2,902
Jackson State 3,089
Quincy 2,039
Ball State 2,704
UTSA 2,345
Bradley 4,072
Drake 3,515
Southern Illinois 4,276
Valpraiso 2,443
Northern Iowa 3,039
Loyola 3,354
Indiana State 3,665

We could have doubled home attendance at any game from last year and not filled capacity at Horton Field House with north end bleachers at old capacity. I really hope we choose at least one game per year for the foreseeable future to host at Horton Field House. I can guarantee the kids on our team would LOVE IT and it will be one of their greatest college memories.

I'm also confident that Brian Barone and the players at SIUE would attest to having an amazing time in this atmosphere and environment than a 20% - 35% capacity filled Redbird Arena. And any opposing team or coaching staff, if they could choose an environment they would rather be a part of, it would be a game at Horton Field House over Redbird Arena.

Once we get our program built back up to where we are selling out or at least near the full capacity of Redbird Arena, I am 100% on board for this. I remember the early days of Redbird Arena and near sell out crowds consistently and they were amazing times. I hope and trust that we can get back there someday!

 

[DBird]

For the 2021 - 2022 season, here was our home attendance:
UNC Wilmington 2,642
Murray State 2,904
Bucknell. 2,576
Purdue Northwest. 1,042
Missouri State 2,902
Jackson State 3,089
Quincy 2,039
Ball State 2,704
UTSA 2,345
Bradley 4,072
Drake 3,515
Southern Illinois 4,276
Valpraiso 2,443
Northern Iowa 3,039
Loyola 3,354
Indiana State 3,665

We could have doubled home attendance at any game from last year and not filled capacity at Horton Field House with north end bleachers at old capacity. I really hope we choose at least one game per year for the foreseeable future to host at Horton Field House. I can guarantee the kids on our team would LOVE IT and it will be one of their greatest college memories.

I'm also confident that Brian Barone and the players at SIUE would attest to having an amazing time in this atmosphere and environment than a 20% - 35% capacity filled Redbird Arena. And any opposing team or coaching staff, if they could choose an environment they would rather be a part of, it would be a game at Horton Field House over Redbird Arena.

Once we get our program built back up to where we are selling out or at least near the full capacity of Redbird Arena, I am 100% on board for this. I remember the early days of Redbird Arena and near sell out crowds consistently and they were amazing times. I hope and trust that we can get back there someday!

It is all about perspective. Redbird (I can't call it cef... whatever ) can be just as electric as Horton just need way more butts in the seats!!!

 

[91Bird]

If the goal is to have an actual home court advantage and to make the games more fun for the fans, the team would play all their games at Horton. The main benefit of Redbird Arena is it’s a good place for students to get some studying in since it’s nice and quiet.

Hopefully there will be a game at Horton every year.

 

[davehead86]

Im on 08 grad and I know we can sell out Redbird Arena, we've had standing room only games in the area recently (WSU when they were ranked and on a roll). Im hoping we get back there again, its magic in Redbird Arena when its packed, just as much energy and just as loud as this Horton Game was.