bit
the
Pumped Plus
O
nce upon a time, in the early '90s, before University of Louisville basketball
games included huge video screens
and ad boards and roving cameramen, before
there were Ladybirds squads and T-shirt cannons and those crappy little orange giveaway
balls, before the spotlights and fog and "Zombie Nation" introductions, before Joey Wagner
roamed the lower level with a microphone
and every timeout was given over to deafening
canned music, and before the public-address
announcer bellowed "Tree-e-e-e-e-e-e" in full
baritone every time a Card hit a three-point
shot (and insultingly whispered the credit for
opponents' made shots) — there was laconic,
even-handed John Tong and the pep band.
Back then, at Freedom Hall, the biggest piece
of hoopla was Tong's never-varied greeting:
"And good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and
welcome to . . . the thrill and the excitement of
college basketball, as the University of Louisville hosts. . . ." When Tong would succinctly
announce, "Time is a-out on the foor," the pep
band would play the U of L fght song or Gary
Glitter's "Rock and Roll Part 2 (Te Hey Song)
22 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 12.13