My first year at Loyola in 2016 — when I played my trumpet in Loyola’s Band of Wolves — the crowds at men’s basketball games were scarce. One of the biggest crowds that year was when 2,189 people watched Loyola beat San Diego State University at Gentile Arena.
After that game, Loyola head coach Porter Moser wrote a column in The Phoenix thanking everyone for coming and begging them to come back.
“You make a difference,” Moser wrote — a common phrase over his nine years at Loyola when he tells students to come to games.