Faces in the Crowd : Lions’ Alumni Have Something to Roar About : Revamped Basketball Team Captures Crown, Gives Old Grads Reason to Smile

It had been such a long time since Loyola Marymount University had a basketball title worth celebrating that most of the media ignored the tiny Division I school just north of Los Angeles International Airport.

All that changed this season. For alumni Drew Bridges and Brian Quinn, who have known the lean years, 1988 is Miller Time. Seated separately in a record crowd of 4,525 recently at Gersten Pavilion, they witnessed a 142-127 triumph over archrival Pepperdine. The victory sealed Loyola’s first conference title in nearly three decades.

The revival is compliments of Paul Westhead, former Lakers coach, and his band of late bloomers and transfers who won the West Coast Athletic Conference title and posted a 24-3 overall record with 21 consecutive victories on a philosophy of “you give us the ball, we’ll give you a basket.”

Such success has ignited a long-smoldering fire within alumni.

Quinn and Bridges have Lion-sized hearts when it comes to their alma mater. So do most of the longtime faithful who sit near them in the expensive maroon seats of the Tip-In Club.

Not since 1961, when Quinn was a sophomore guard on the basketball team, had the Lions won a conference title. And the Pepperdine game was the final chance for the crowd to see a championship team at home.

Bridges (class of ‘77), a lawyer, is one of the first to arrive and last to leave at each Loyola game. He explodes in applause and consternation as Loyola races up and down the court.

Then there is Quinn, a quiet, lithe man of 46. His red hair and disarming smile hide the fact that inside that dark blue

suit and buttoned-down white collar is the intensity that drove him to become athletic director at his alma mater.

After a lot of what Bridges termed “lean years,” this is almost heaven.

“We were here when Loyola was 3-24,” Bridges said. “That’s bad.”

“This is the first time since I’ve been here that I’ve seen tailgate parties in the parking lot before a game,” said Bridges, who first attended games in the campus gym as a student in the mid-1970s.

Indeed, against Pepperdine you could feel the excitement. The media was there. Big time had hit Gersten.

Near a wall that announced you had reached “Loyola-Marymount” a student held a sign: “I need a ticket.”

The game had been sold out for weeks, but there was no scalping in the parking lot. There were few sellers.

Inside Gersten there was a carnival atmosphere. One reason was Westhead’s point-a-second basketball.

Westhead calls it “Run the System.” The slogan made its TV debut when commentator Mike Walden, in Malibu for Prime Ticket to report Loyola’s earlier 107-95 victory over Pepperdine, revealed that Westhead had T-shirts made with the slogan to remind the Lions to push the ball up the floor.

When was the last time you saw a crowd-pleaser like 6-7 senior forward Mike Yoest rebound and score on his miss at one end of the court and 10 seconds later take a charge under the Waves’ basket?

“He is the heart of this team,” said Bridges of Yoest. Not surprisingly, pointed out Bridges, “Mike Yoest Fan Club” T-shirts adorned many in the crowd.

Quinn reflected on the Westhead approach: “If you want to put people in the arena, this is the way to do it.”

Since Loyola does not have a football team, the Pepperdine game served as homecoming. The few Pepperdine fans were submerged in a sea of crimson and gray.

“It’s great to see all the kids here,” Quinn said.

Bridges was quick to point out that Loyola stands for academics, too: “We want to be known for athletics but not at the expense of becoming a jock factory.”

Bridges sat on the edge of his seat as the game began. Pepperdine raced to a 12-2 lead in the first two minutes. “I think Loyola is too charged,” he said.

Eight minutes later with a 31-24 lead, Bridges was ecstatic.

“This is our pace,” he said of the tempo. “It’s one of those streaks. We seem to hit two or three of them each game. By the end of the game we run our opponents down.”

Pepperdine clawed back and held a 65-60 half-time lead. Bridges, who was vocally involved in the contest, predicted that in the second half a player would ignite Loyola. It turned out to be sophomore guard Jeff Fryer, who hit three consecutive three-point shots with about 10 minutes to go.

“I told you there would be one guy like that,” Bridges said.

Quinn returned from a half-time mixer with alumni and took the administrative view of the game. He was angered with the student body when it taunted Pepperdine forward Tom Lewis with chants of “Lewis sucks, Lewis sucks.”

“It shows no class,” he said. “We talked to the student leaders about this before the game. We want people to yell as loud as they can, to be enthusiastic. Just leave the obscenities out.”

The crowd continued to taunt Lewis. After a pair of technical fouls against Pepperdine, the air in Gersten was tense. Quinn put his hand to his brow. With 11:50 left, his worst fears materialized when several scuffles broke out among players.

Security men had their hands full as the crowd grew unruly. Quinn headed to the floor. By the time he reached the student rooting section, someone had hurled Loyola warm-up jackets onto the floor and players’ tempers were getting short again. Two men jumped from the stands and unfurled a banner that said “WCAC Champs.” They paraded it behind both benches to the delight of the crowd.

Quinn would have no more of it. He defused the situation by grabbing the banner and motioning the students back to their seats. When calm had been restored, he remained on the sidelines.

The crowd chanted “Let’s beat the Waves” and continued to taunt Lewis, but Quinn had done his job.

Dancing Barry of Forum fame popped onto the floor at a timeout late in the game. His dance number got the crowd, which had fallen into a sullen mood after the tense moments earlier, back into the game. When Loyola hit its third consecutive three-point shot in a four-minute span, Bridges was on his feet applauding with the rest of the crowd.

With 1:03 left and the game firmly in hand, the Loyola crowd began to chant: “Nah-nah, hey, hey, goodby.”

With 38 seconds to go, Quinn finally relaxed, let out a sigh of relief.

The Loyola team returned to the floor minutes after the game. To the tune of James Brown’s “I Feel Good” and the Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction” blaring over the public address system, one of the players produced scissors and the nets came down.

Bridges, still in his seat, shouted as each player took a turn snipping the strings on the cylinders. He had set the timer on his videotape recorder at home to record the game, which was shown on cable TV. He would have the net-cutting ceremony to replay.

As for Quinn, he stood on the floor, soaking it in.

“I haven’t had this much fun in a long time,” he said.

He was speaking for everyone in the house. It had been a long time coming at Loyola.