The hiatus is over.
"The Biggest Party in College Basketball" is back.
Saturday night marked the start of Grand Canyon University’s much-anticipated basketball season with a men’s home exhibition game against University of Southern California.
Global Credit Union Arena doors opened at 5:30 p.m. but the party started days before when students started pitching tents at the Quad to be the first in line for the epic night that would launch the team’s first Mountain West season.
“It is always a party and some of my best memories revolve around GCU men’s basketball,” senior Paul Boyd said, who was the first to pitch his tent with his group on Wednesday. “We wanted to be the first in line because the front row is where all the action is at. The best thing about our basketball is definitely the atmosphere because win or lose, it is always a good time.”
More tents joined the camp in days that followed, but on game day the student line started at the Quad and extended around the Lope Shop and all the way to the soccer stadium.
The arena was the place to be Saturday night, and the maxed-out 7,000-seat house left was standing-room-only by 6 p.m. Nobody wanted to miss the party.
“I love this college,” Sue Koppy said. “The camaraderie here is so fun, we love the basketball games.”
Koppy regularly visited campus while her granddaughter studied at the university. After her graduation, only one thing motivated Koppy to keep visiting campus: the rambunctious, high-energy basketball games.
“We’ve gotten to know so many people here, so it feels like we are a part of the family now,” Koppy said.
Carnival rides, bouncy houses and picnic food kicked off a family-fun tailgate on the Quad where students and families gathered with pre-game jitters. Meanwhile, the Havoc House and the Jerry Colangelo Museum housed hundreds of Lopes Club guests for dinner, social hour and community building.
Music cut and every head turned when the Thundering Herd Pep Band and Cheer announced their arrival with a loud drumbeat and trumpet sounds.
“G-C-U,” chants echoed as the Spirit teams put on their traditional game day performance in front of the arena. America’s favorite mascot, Thunder, joined in for the dancing and cheering for the university while entertaining the crowd by high-fiving children, hugging and mingling around guests.
“The energy, amazing enthusiasm and the kids, obviously the pep squad and the band, they never stop, it’s amazing,” Shelly Wronka said.
Wronka and her husband, Jack, attended their first basketball game last season after their neighbor, who is a season ticket holder, encouraged them to go. Theyd never been to GCU before but were blown away by the upbeat atmosphere.
Now the Wronkas are season ticket holders, and every home game is marked in their calendar.
“My grandfather, my uncle and dad all went to USC,” Wronka said. “This was a must see for me and we were just excited to see the game. With any athletic game, we just hope it’s a good time.”
When Dr. Paul Danuser began his announcement, “And now give it up for your GCU basketball,” it was everyone’s queue to make their way inside.
Fog machines and purple streamers exploded, the music beat dropped, and a group of cheerleaders ran out from tunnels each carrying a flag with a purple letter that together spelled, “GCU Lopes.”
The men’s basketball team made their grand entrance and the arena shook as exuberant families, students, staff and faculty cheered, clapped and jumped.
The team was greeted by a purple sea from the family section, but the constumed student section featured Santa Clause, Winnie the Pooh, Woody from "Toy Story," Nacho Libre, Teletubbies, Scooby-Doo’s Velma, Daphne and Fred, and more. Many held large cutouts of players or fun posters.
Purple-party-turned-Halloween-party lived up to the university’s basketball reputation.
“Lots of prep went into tonight,” Havocs President Evan McKee said. “We wanted to hit it out of the park and make sure that students not only knew about the Havocs and what it meant, but know how exciting it is. I feel like we did that well and the results reflected it today with the crowd.
“It was a sold-out student crowd and being able to have that type of atmosphere for night one was really exciting and encouraging for this upcoming year. It’s a unique thing we have, 'The Biggest Party in College Basketball.'”
GCU staff writer Izabela Fogarasi can be reached at [email protected]
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