Top 10 Moments at NCU (Part 2)

The memories at North Central continued...

6. Beating 4 West Carlson in intramural basketball was not enough for me. You see a bunch of guys on that floor are friends of mine so we are very competitive with each other. So during this year's intramural football season our teams played each other. It was one of the coldest days of the semester. There was an inch of snow on the ground that October Saturday and the wind chill was almost zero degrees. Neither team had played any defense during the game, in fact, both teams had scored every single time they had the ball. There was literally no defense played that game. And on the last play of the game it was all tied up. We called a time out to draw up a play in the huddle. We were about 4o yards from the end zone and needed to get the ball in the end zone to win. When the ball was snapped I faked the hand off to Jed McGuire and threw a pass to my roommate, Steve Svoboda. As soon as he caught the ball he tossed it to Jed who was running full speed toward the end zone. As soon as Jed caught the ball he made about 5 defenders miss his flags and scampered into the end zone to win the game. It was a miracle. The hook and ladder actually worked. We tasted victory once again.

7. It was December of 2007 when of the greatest weeks in North Central history took place. Ironically enough it was finals week. Typically finals week is not that great but that year it was.

The People: Zach Brose, Jed McGuire, Weston Bradshaw, Dustin Poole and me.
The Place: 2 East Phillipps - suite 212.

For some reason, that I still do not know to this day, we all thought it would be sweet (which it was) to pull all of our mattresses out of our respective rooms and into my suite. We lined the beds up in a row with a TV in front. Every single night for over a week we ordered pizza, watched the O.C. and slept in the suite. In just a matter of a week we turned what was once a stressful time of the semester to the best week of our lives. Class became completely optional and was a day to day decision whether or not we would go. With over a foot of snow of the ground outside there was not a lot of motivation to do anything but stay in bed, have food delivered to our beds, and watch an inappropriate amount of high school drama television shows. If I recall we watched 3 complete seasons of the O.C. in a matter of a week. Oh and I forgot to mention that by halfway through the week and a half long slumber party, we had added a few more guys without adding any more beds. In other words, we began to go 3 men for every 2 beds. You can imagine the smell of the suite at that point. The only thing I can remember is stuffing dryer sheets in the fan to help improve the aroma. Not only were memories made and relationships built, but that was the week Zach Brose decided to tell his sister about me.

8. Rock, paper, scissors is an American past time. But at NCU it much more than that. In 2008 my friends and I decided to have a weekend retreat at my apartment. And it was during that weekend that we came up with a new way to make decisions. If we wanted to watch a movie and couldn't make a decision we played rock, paper, scissors to decide. If we were not sure which restaurant we wanted to eat at then each person in the group would represent a different restaurant. Then we would have a round robin rock, paper, scissors tournament and eat at the restaurant represented by the winner. And it was on the first night of our weekend retreat we had the largest and most intense rock, paper, scissors tournament of all time. It was a double elimination tournament with over a dozen participants. The tournament was so rowdy security came to our apartment 3 times. I am pretty sure there was a moment where the Jock Jams CD was turned up all the way and I was on top of the kitchen table cheering on the underdog. For those of us who experienced this mayhem it will forever go down as the craziest half hour of our lives. And if you were not there then you can only try to imagine.

9. I have always believed in "going out with a bang." And that is what we did our senior year. This past September we decided to throw a Root Beer Kegger at our apartment. I had a vision of our apartment being filled with NCU students having a good time and drinking root beer. So I decided to order the 8 gallon keg. However, when I went to pick up the keg they mixed up the order and gave me the 16 gallon keg. Little did I know that was going to be necessary. Because by 10:00 that night we had 150 people in our apartment singing and dancing with to the beats with the small of 1919 root beer in the air. The party lasted about 4 hours until the resident director showed up after midnight and informed us they had received a half dozen noise complaint calls from our neighbors. They may have put an end to that party but we still have the memories of 150 college kids in our little apartment having the time of their lives. The Root Beer Kegger will go down as one of the greatest parties ever thrown at NCU.

10. The number one memory I will have of North Central University came on December 11, 2009. Not long after I walked across the stage to receive my diploma, decked out in my cap and gown, our president officially introduced us the class of 2009. Right then I looked around and saw my parents, Heather, Zach and their parents, and my best friend Brenden from high school. But that was not it. I then heard some enthusiastic cheering from the balcony. When I looked up I saw an image that will forever be in my head. I saw Ben Cline, Jaren Grenell, Dustin Poole, John Benson, and Kirk Graham. 5 of my best friends at NCU there for me cheering as I graduated from college. Those guys had been with me since day one at NCU and I will never forget the memories we made together in college. These top ten moments can really go in any order but the number one moment in my North Central career was seeing those 5 guys, who were involved in almost all of my top moments at NCU, in the balcony celebrating with me an important milestone in my life.

Thanks for all the memories!