Students watch big game on campus

The only football fan in his family, freshman Michael Brown had to fight with his sister for control of the television every Super Bowl Sunday.

“She would want to watch a movie,” Brown said. “And I’d be like, ‘Mom, it’s the Super
Bowl!’ ”

Brown said he usually watches the game at home. This year, he watched it with his friends in the Wright Quad formal lounge with about 50 other students.

“There’s a big projector,” he said. “It can actually accommodate all of us.”

Growing up in Indianapolis, Brown said he has always been a fan of the Colts.

Freshman Sylvia Tejchma said that, though she is a Colts fan, it was a big surprise to her that they made it to the Super Bowl.

“They lost a pretty decent coach,” she said. “They got a brand new one. But they’ve reacted to it well.”

Senior Jarrhod Johnson took the side of the New Orleans Saints, the Colt’s rivals.

Johnson said he cheered for the Saints more so out of dislike for the Colts than devotion to the team.

“I’m playing the devil’s advocate,” he said. “And I enjoy it. I enjoy screaming ‘Who dat!’ I’ll probably scream it again in about five seconds.”

Instead of watching the game at home, Johnson joined more than 100 students at the Whittenberger Auditorium in the Indiana Memorial Union for the Union Board Super Bowl Party. Johnson said he went to support Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., one of the groups involved in planning the event.

“Normally I just sit around at home,” he said. “I figured I’d switch it up. It’s 2010.”

In an effort to collaborate with different organizations, junior Shannon Cook, outreach director for the Union Board, said the group asked Delta Sigma Theta and the Student Athletic Board to help arrange the Super Bowl screening.

“It’s so students had a place to go,” she said. “We have a pretty diverse outcome. But I think we’ve got mostly Colt’s fans.”

The boards advertised free food, expecting around 100 students to come out and watch, Cook said. However, the auditorium received more viewers than anticipated.

“We ran out of food,” Cook said. “It obviously went fast.”

First year master’s student Cynthia Bova said she does not own a television. During her college years, she said she watched the Super Bowl in her dorm. This year she lives in an apartment off campus and decided to give the Whittenberger a try after reading an advertisement for the party.

A Colts fan like Brown, Bova said she has never lived in a state that has a winning team and still hasn’t.

Bova said she is surprised by the Colt’s loss and expected the score to be closer. Though she is sad for her team, she said it is a good story for the Saints.

“I’m sure New Orleans is happy,” she said. “But both teams played pretty well.”

Sophomore Jeff Williams, student director for the Union Board, said he was cheering for a great game.

“I’m from Indy,” he said. “But in my heart I’m rooting for the Saints for the story. New Orleans and all that it’s gone through – a win would be great for the city.”