DePaul Fans & Grads

[Razor]

My wife attended the 3rd game of the NIT Tournament between Air Force and DePaul last evening at the Air Force Academy. Before the game began, both teams were on the floor for warm-ups, and then for announcing the starters, as usual. However, when Air Force started lining up on the sidelines in preparation for the playing of the National Anthem, the DePaul team--players, coaches, managers, everyone--quickly left the floor, heading back in the direction of their locker room. They were absent for the entire song, but came back out once the roar from the crowd following the song subsided. My wife was stunned a team would do that, and asked her friend what that was all about. Her friend, an AF season ticket holder, told her a number of teams have done that this season, and in previous seasons, to intentionally show disrepect to the AF team. Apparently, these coaches and players are too stupid to understand to whom they're really showing disrespect. On a more uplifting note, she said that not only did the walls reverberate from the volume with which the crowd sang the National Anthem, the crowd just as loudly booed the DePaul team when they reimerged. That, and Air Force won.

Any of you with any sort of ties to DePaul University, and especially those with ties to the basketball team, need to express any feelings you have over this stunt to the university leadership. Is this the face of DePaul you want people to see and remember? Is a coach that condones this type of behavior providing the type of leadership we want our young adults to receive?