Barack Obama surprises students at Little 500, Nicks

For an hour Friday afternoon, every student on Kirkwood Avenue stopped drinking. In the heat of Little 500 festivities, on a gorgeous sunny day, students left Kilroy’s, emptied the Upstairs Pub and poured out onto the sidewalks and into the street, all looking for one man: the celebrity Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. He came after all. \nThe Illinois senator crashed the Little 500 women’s race with a surprise appearance on campus and then traveled in his motorcade to Nick’s English Hut where he shook hands with all of the patrons inside. \nHis visit came with little advance warning. The campaign did not officially announce the stop until the senator’s motorcade began pulling into the driveway of Bill Armstrong Stadium.\nObama was greeted at both places by throngs of screaming and cheering students who crowded in, trying to catch at least a glimpse of the political phenom. The lucky ones got a handshake, a smile or a nod from the senator. \nSophomore Coco Goldenberg got one better. When she held out her pink Alpha Chi Omega trucker hat and asked Obama to sign it, he took out a pen and scribbled his signature across the brim. \nGoldenberg, breathlessly excited, posed for photos with her friends, proudly sporting the hat. \n“I’m a big, big Obama supporter. He’s so tight,” she said.\nWhen the presidential contender showed up and walked around the circumference of the track at Bill Armstrong Stadium, he shook hands with riders and screaming IU students.\nObama then took a position off the field, surrounded by police officers and his Secret Service detail, and watched the start of the race.\nStudents who were walking into the stadium to support their friends in the race stopped, shocked to see the senator at IU’s own Little 500 race.\nFreshman Kyle Katz, who got a chance to shake Obama’s hand, said he was unsure whether he would vote in Indiana’s May 6 primary. But now there’s no doubt. \n“This guy’s going all out,” Katz said. “He deserves my vote.”\nAs word spread spread quickly via text message among IU students that Obama’s next planned stopped was Nick’s, dozens of students gathered outside the beloved Bloomington bar. \nHis reception at Nick’s was no less noisy and warm. When he left Nick’s and walked down the Kirkwood to his waiting tour bus, students filled the streets.\nOnly once has Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan, an ardent Obama booster, seen such excitement, revelry and celebration.\n“It was the last time we won an NCAA Championship,” he said with a smile.