I was there tonight. There's video of the pep rally, so no need to rehash. W were lucky as it started to sprinkle as the players were coming out, but it didn't start to rain until BK said goodbye. Couple minutes later it really started to rain.
Top moments for me:
* Swarbrick telling the students that they're the best student section in the country, but that they need to get the rest of the crowd to follow suit (nice little dig on the librarians that come to the stadium that he seems to be trying hard to evict).
* Swarbrick saying this year's team has the best chemistry of any team since he's been there. Hope he's right and I hope he translates that into wins.
* No skits while I was there (got there a little late though), unlike last year's first pep rally, where there were AWFUL skits for over half an hour.
* Third pep rally for me with BK live, plus the ones I've seen in person. This was the most relaxed, most self-assured (read: confident) I've ever seen him.
* Didn't know that Eifert's entire family are Purdue grads, including his dad who played bball for them. Loved the "Hell no" he gave at the end when talking about whether he would go to Purdue out of h.s.
* Manti's speech and his subsequent breaking of the mike were boss! First, his speech had the entire crowd pumped, screaming "Our House!", and then after his "Go Irish" he stomped off and threw the mic down, breaking it and having the IT booth (we were standing right next to them) scramble to get another mic to Kelly, which they did in very impressive fashion I might add.
* And finally, right after we turned to walk to the car, there was the man himself, Mr. Dickie Vatale. He was taking pictures with someone, and then I tried to get his attention real quick but he turned and walked away. I told my wife "Dang" and his son or son-in-law saw me and said not to worry and got DickieV's attention, and we got a picture of he, my daughter and I. It was awesome! My daughter is looking up at him admiringly (we tried to make the picture quick and it just so happened that we got lucky that my daughter had that look), so it's a keeper. Unfortunately I came out looking like absolute crap (even worse than usual LOL) so that pic ain't making it here!
Anyway, here are some low-quality pics:
Dickie V:
The team, with Manti speaking:
A little of the team...you see Troy the beast there:
BK speaking:
A few of the cheerleaders (improving their talent, btw):
Before the team got there, the student section was having a good time with it:
And this has nothing to do with the pep rally, but on our walk there, I had to take this pic because it looked so effing hard:
Hope to see some of you at the game tomorrow!!!
