words by Chris Barron,
SIU Dean of Sports Education and Party Science;
pictures by Geary Deniston

An Interesting Confluence of Taste

When Nightlife's editor, Chris Wissmann, first asked me to do a sports column for this wonderful website, I gave him a look that said, "Man, you've been drinking too much rock ‘n’ roll Kool-Aid!"

The 2003 Gateway Football Conference champs.

But perhaps it is me who should change my drinking habits, not Chris. After all, what an urbane college student should or should not do with his or her "nightlife" is a matter of individual taste.

What's a more enriching experience on a fall Saturday night in Carbondale-- seeing and hearing a good rock band or watching a rocking band of nationally ranked Saluki football players at McAndrew Stadium? Read on, and you be the judge.

SIU Athletics in the 2004-2005 school year has the potential to produce a golden year in both basketball and football.

Pregame Student Warmup Drills

McAndrew Stadium.

However, no I.D. flashing is required in order to party down outside McAndrew Stadium during a variety of tailgate happenings that fire up several hours before kickoff.

Just bring your cooler, portable grill, boom-box party-mix CD, and a mellow mood to the parking lots surrounding the stadium, and I'll guarantee you will experience an excellent adventure.

Climbing Jacob's Ladder

The Dawgs’ last time as a I-AA Champ was back when big hair was king (1983), so they are way past due.

SIU head football coach Jerry Kill's rock ‘em-sock ‘em footballers come off a 10-2 season, where they were first round losers to eventual I-AA national champs Deleware in the NCAA tournament. And they are primed for bigger and better things in 2004.

Most of the 2003 Gateway Football Conference team returns, but that squad did lose two key running backs on a team that ran more than seventy percent of the time: Tom Koutsos (all-time rushing leader in the Gateway Conference) and Mo Abduqaadir (first team I-AA All-Americam).

But not to worry, potential fans.

Kill merely rolled his recruiting shopping cart to the nearest I-A big-time football schools and scored two more running backs, both of which may turn out to be as good or better than Mo and Tom.

Returning SIU quarterback Joel Sambursky.

First, Kill signed Terry Jackson II from the University of Minnesota. Jackson ran for more than 1,300 yards in the Big Ten Conference in 2002. But his Minnesota career fell into a Gopher hole in 2003 when a returning starter (injured in 2002) and a new super-duper high-school hotshot took most of Jackson's carries.

Jacobs transferred from Auburn University after averaging 6.2 yards per carry in 2003. And though he may not break a bunch of fifty-yard runs like Jackson, he definitely is going to break opponents’ football helmets.

Rated the number-five college back available for the upcoming 2005 NFL draft, Jacobs is a player you may want to see on a Saturday night, even if you're not a Saluki football fan. Heck, you may want to see him rumble even if you don't dig football at all!

• See the 2003-2004 football results and the 2004-2005 SIU football schedule here.
• Meet the 2004-2005 Saluki football team here.

Hip-hoop Music

Saluki basketball fans start painting their faces in November this year. Around Thanksgiving 2004, SIU's storied roundballers will start hip-hoopin' to music eminating from Las Vegas.

Darren Brooks drives in
for an easy two.

This year, they are in a November B-ball tourney in Vegas with the likes of Texas, El Paso, and Vanderbilt. Don't worry, the 2004-2005 Saluki ballers are well-prepared for such big games.

They return the Missouri Valley Conference’s MVP and Defensive Player of the Year. Oddly enough, the Dawgs need only one player to cover both titles: Darren Brooks (six-feet three-inches, 210 pounds). The senior point guard from Jennings High (St. Louis, Missouri), has the wing span of a 747 jet, and a deadly outside shot to boot.

His running mates will be Stetson Hairston (six-feet three-inches, 215 pounds, Belleville East), a linebacker-strong defensive stopper, and soph flash Jamaal Tatum (six-feet one-inch, Jefferson City, Missouri).

The power forward and center spots are up for grabs, but SIU has plenty of talent to fill those spots. Josh Warren (six-feet eight-inches, 250 pounds) may find a home at the five spot (center) and Missouri Valley Conference All-Bench teamer dynamo Lamar Owen (six-feet five-inches, two-hundred pounds) will battle red-shirted phenom Randle Falker (six-feet seven-inches, 220 pounds, Gateway Tech, St Louis, Missouri) and highly touted Matt Shaw (six-feet seven-inches, 225 pounds, Centralia) for playing time at the four-spot (point forward).

Jamaal Tatum.

A Road Trip to St. Louie

Regardless of who wins the regular-season Valley title, all ten MVC teams traipse off to conveniently located St. Louis, Missouri (located only one-hundred miles from Carbondale) during the first weekend in March for a four-game tournament which rewards the winner with an automatic NCAA tournament berth.

Dawg fans can either drive to St. Louis's twenty-thousand-seat Savvis Center (site of the MVC tourney) in less than two hours, or (and this is my preference) get a motel room in or near the city and party till tipoff each day at Lacledes Landing's fine entertainment venues.

In fact, you don't even have to go to the trouble of driving your car into or around St. Louis. The Gateway City has an efficient, cheap electric-train system that travels from stations located near a gaming-boat parking lot on the Illinois side of the river (with free parking for your auto) right up to within one-hundred yards of the Savvis Center.

Pound Dawg Party

The Dawg Pound, a special section consisting
of the wildest SIU men's basketball
fans, makes every game a party.

Seated in their own section on the main floor of the SIU Arena (capacity 10,000), Dawg Pound residents (mainly SIU students) have the freedom to harass opposition players until those enemy bumpkins are more worried about a Pound Dawg biting them (verbally, of course!) than about the game's outcome.

• See the 2003-2004 Saluki men's basketball results and the 2004-2005 SIU football schedule here.
• Meet the 2004-2005 Saluki men's basketball team here.

Dawg Stars

SIU's list of super basketball talent is a long one, topped by NBA Hall of Famer Walt "Clyde" Frazier, who led the Salukis to an N.I.T. title in 1967 and was recently named one of the NBA's fifty greatest players.

Former SIU great Troy Hudson,
now in the NBA.

Troy Hudson (six-feet one-inch), a lightning-quick point guard for the Salukis in 1996, is currently a starter for the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves.

And with new coach Chris Lowery at the SIU basketball helm, you will get many more chances to view future pro players dunk in the faces of all those opposition sad-sacks that you will harass from your pen in the Pound.

Save some of those irritating insults for fun in the sun a few months later at the baseball diamond.

Baseball Been Berry, Berry Good to Fans

Party Central for Dawg sports fanatics from mid-March through May is located on the grass-carpeted hill that runs along the right-field line- Abe Martin Baseball Field.

The Hill Gang cheers SIU baseball,
and heckles opponents, in comfort.

The Gang totes their blankets, barbecue grills, favorite beverages and, most importantly, their sarcastic attitudes to each and every game at Abe Martin Field.

Woe be unto the enemy right-fielder who accidentally muffs a fly ball!

Heckling is the Hill Gang's well-honed art.

And, often, they do their critiquing from their own comfy house couches that they truck to Abe Martin Field for the occasion.

I guess if you're going to be a sarcastic couch potato, you might as well be an outdoor one, enjoying yourself in the fresh air.

Saluki Baseball Diamonds

Throughout the years, those SIU couch 'taters have witnessed prime NCAA tournament Saluki teams. The Salukis went to the College World Series five times- in 1968, 1969, 1971, 1974, and 1977, taking second place in '68 and '71.

The Dawgs have also boasted equally super players who have gone on to star in the Show.

Former American League All-Star pitcher Dave Steib (Seattle Mariners), who threw a no-hitter, was followed more recently into the professional ranks by Golden Glove winner Steve Finley, starting center-fielder for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Minnesota Twins starting pitcher Sean Bergman-- all former Diamond Dawgs.

Home Runs, Hot Dawgs, and Cool Music environment

Adding to the festive atmosphere of Abe Martin Field is the presence of large, outdoor concerts located well within walking distance of the baseball field.

A few years ago, you could have watched the funky baseball Dawgs do their thang while simultaneously listening to George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars or Ziggy Marley (Bob Marley's son) laying down a groove for thousands of joyous dudes and dudettes who were dancing only a few hundred yards away from the baseball action!

Nightlife: Take One of Each

Okay. Since Saluki basketball and football games usually run from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., you've probably guessed by now that I've given readers a falacious conundrum (hope it didn't hurt too much). When it comes to choosing between nightlife at the bars or at the Saluki playing field, there actually isn't a need for choice.

Dig it: you party before the games, party at the games, and then (all together now) party to Nightlife-advertised rock bands and DJs after the games.

Saluki sports teams start their warmups at about 6 p.m. on game days. Rock bands don't start warming up before 10:30 p.m.

So as far as nightlife is concerned, don't be concerned. Take one of each. It will double your pleasure, double your fun.

Oh. and don't fret. The Morris Library is still open each and every Sunday for your viewing pleasure. So you don't have to have guilty feelings about your activities the Saturday night before. But why should you feel that way? It's all good clean college fun-- so enjoy!

Look who's played for the Salukis!

• Troy Hudson, Minnesota Timberwolves guard who recently signed a $36 million contract.
• Steve Finley, Major League Baseball 1996 National League Golden Glove Award winner for the San Diego Padres.
• Walt Frazier, NBA Hall of Famer.
• Cameron Wright, 1996 Olympic high jumper.
• Mike Glenn, former NBA player and CNN Television basketball analyst.
• Damon Jones, tight end, Jacksonville Jaguars.
• Connie Price-Smith, three-time Olympian with seventeen national track titles, now SIU's track coach.

Former SIU and NFL
standout Jim Hart.

• Dave Stieb, former Toronto Bluejays pitching ace, 1985 ERA leader and 1982. shutout leader- threw a no-hit game in 1990.
• Garrett Hines, USA I Bobsled team.
• Jim Hart, former quarterback for the St. Louis Cardinals and the Washington Redskins.
• Chris Carr, former Chicago Bulls guard.
• Dan Radison, Chicago Cubs first-base coach 1995-1999.
• Sean Bergman, pitcher, Atlanta Braves.
• Al Levine, relief pitcher, Detroit Tigers.

It's Saluki, NOT Suzuki

No, SIU's mascot is not a motorcycle.

It's a dawg- just in case you're still wondering after looking at the picture.

In fact, it's an Egyptian dog, which seems a bit odd given that SIU is located smack in the middle of the U.S. of A.

An honest-to-god Saluki.

Needless to say, there are several stories about why Eisenhower-era students took time from jamming their bodies into phone booths and Volkswagens to select such an arcane moniker.

One popular name-origin fable concerns geography.

Since SIU is located between the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, just as the Nile River and its tributaries define Egypt, Southern Illinois is often called Little Egypt.

My own theory is that those ancient SIU college students probably just ran out of meaningful ways to represent their university with colored issue paper on a chickenwire-frame homecoming float.

After all, Dawgs can bite opponents, but what can the color maroon to them except, perhaps, change their moods from chipper to maudlin?

Granted, a Saluki Dawg's bark may appear considerably worse than its apparent bite given its anorexic appearance.

But don't let its zero-fat body fool you.

Salukis were used by the ancient Egyptians to run down antelopes in a manner similar to how SIU linebackers search and destroy opposition halfbacks.

And, although Saluki Dawgs may have foreign ancestors, they are definitely "red, white, and blue" American in their tastes.

You can usually find them meandering from one tailgate party to another, shamelessly begging for hotdogs. Come to think of it, somewhat how I act at home football pre-games.

So, do make your acquaintance with our Dawgs this coming fall, but please don't call him a Suzuki.

Chris Barron is a sports columnist for the Carbondale Times.
Geary Deniston is a Carbondale Times writer and photographer specializing in sports.