Madhouse on Madison

Chicago Stadium hosted the first conference tourneyment for the Great Midwest Conference in 1992. DePaul won the regular season title, but lost to Memphis State 95-75 in the first round. They went on to lose to New Mexico State in the first round of the tournament.

I didn't realize it at the timebut, DePaul was on it's way down in terms of popularity in the Chicago sporting public. The Bulls had won a championship at that time and were the team in town. The Blackhawks were in the Stanley Cup finals that year before they started getting rid of players and fans started going to see the minor league Chicago Wolves. The White Sox had some young players that showed some promise and the Cubs had a Cy Young pitcher who was not wanted back. The Ditka was about to end and the Kane County Cougars started the influx of minor league teams in the Chicago area. There were too many things competing for sports fans interest that it was around this time my interest in DePaul was starting to wane.

I loved watching DePaul basketball, but when they joined the Great Midwest, it meant more games would be switched to cable away from WGN-TV. Then WGN radio dumped them a couple of years later for Northwestern football and basketball. Once I left DePaul in 1994 I don't think I saw more than 3 three home games. Since 1999, I've only been to a handful of games. The way DePaul treated Joey Meyer and the bad years of the Pat Kennedy era kept me away. The Dave Leito years started to get exciting until he left for University of Virginia and now the Jerry Wainwright program is a work in progress. The memory that stick in my mind is of the miracle win over St. John's when Dallas Comegys missed a free throw on purpose so they would have a last second shot for the win. Who knew that would be the last time DePaul was in Sweet 16.