Silcox | No ‘rally’ caps on Locust — just winter hats

I can’t say I’ve ever been to a pep rally.

But I’ve watched enough sports movies to know that what I saw noon yesterday at the Compass was not a pep rally. Where was the pep, Red and Blue Crew? And where was the rally, Penn Athletics?

I’ll give the Crew some credit — with temperatures hovering around freezing, just showing up made a statement in itself.

But beyond that, the ‘rally’ missed the mark. Rather than getting the student body excited for what may have been one of the most captivating matchups of the season, the event left me feeling cold, literally and figuratively.

The message that I heard over and over again in the 20 minutes that I attended (any longer would have been overkill) was “buy your tickets to tonight’s game, five dollars.”

Penn Athletics assistant marketing manager J.A. Craggs, who helped out at the rally said that “regardless of ticket sales, it [was] a great event.”

It appeared that ticket sales were the event, with not much substance elsewhere.

When I think of the iconic pep rally scene — picture Friday Night Lights, Bring It On, or, from my personal DVD collection, High School Musical — I imagine throngs of zealous students going hoarse cheering for their squad. I picture speeches from coaches and captains that make cheerleaders swoon.

I don’t picture ticket sales.

Yesterday, there were no crowds. I didn’t hear any speeches. And while I saw a few cheerleaders, they surely weren’t swooning (despite interim head coach Jerome Allen’s handsome good-looks).

Allen remarked at the event that support for the Penn Athletics community today is the same as it was 15 years ago when he pounded the Palestra’s hardwood as an undergrad.

“I appreciate these guys comin’ out to support us,” Allen said of the Red and Blue Crew members who braved the cold to hand out rally towels.

But the students who walked by the Compass at lunchtime yesterday did not stop to cheer on the coach or high-five the Quaker mascot.

Attitude towards hoops on this campus will surely improve when we have a winning team. But I didn’t see much school spirit yesterday.

Better timing, location and publicity could have given Wednesday’s rally more oomph — something of which this basketball program is in dire need.

At noon on a Wednesday, most hungry Quakers are in Houston Hall, Bursar-ing sushi. So why not hold the rally there?

The event received little hype, and with students preoccupied with the beginning of a new semester and fraternity and sorority recruitment, few students probably even glanced at the promotional Red and Blue News e-mail sent out early Wednesday morning.

But despite all of the shortcomings in planning, I still think that the Red and Blue Crew had the right idea.

Moreover, I’m convinced that yesterday’s ‘rally’ (or whatever it should have been called) was the start of something good.

A basketball culture will not be reborn on this campus overnight, but it also won’t spontaneously generate.

It was uplifting to see Allen at the Compass, clad in high-tops and Penn Basketball sweats. I sincerely believe this man can bring a lost hoops culture back to campus, whether he thinks it ever left or not.

CALDER SILCOX is a sophomore Science, Technology and Society major from Washington, D.C. His e-mail address is silcox@dailypennsylvanian.com.

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