Loyola lights up city: Willis Tower turns maroon and gold for Ramblers

SHARE Loyola lights up city: Willis Tower turns maroon and gold for Ramblers
9215_33_6380.jpg

The Willis Tower will shine maroon and gold Thursday night in honor of Loyola’s men’s basketball team. | Courtesy of Skydeck Chicago

Loyola’s men’s basketball team has united Chicago.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a Cubs fan or cheer for the White Sox; if you went to DePaul or went to college out of state. It seems like everyone and their mother — and sister — have rallied around the Ramblers and their 98-year-old team chaplain, Sister Jean Dolores-Schmidt, for their NCAA Tournament run.

In honor of Thursday night’s Sweet 16 matchup between 11th-seeded Loyola and seventh-seeded Nevada, the Willis Tower will be changing its antennae at sunset to red and yellow.

Loyola has made it clear that the team won’t quit until the last buzzer sounds, and that might not happen for another week.

RELATED STORIES: Loyola’s path to Final Four open with top four seeds out 4 keys to how Loyola can beat Nevada in Sweet 16

With the four top seeds out, the South Region is wide open for anyone, and the Ramblers have continued to ask: “Why not us?”

Of the four remaining teams in Loyola’s region, only Nevada was ranked in the last Associated Press poll (No. 22), though Kentucky was just 20 points short of the No. 25 spot.

But as fate might have it, Loyola’s two tournament victories have come against ranked teams.

Loyola will look to advance to its first Elite 8 since 1963, but first, the Ramblers need to devour the Wolf Pack.

Follow me on Twitter: @madkenney

The Latest
The man was shot in the left eye area in the 5700 block of South Christiana Avenue on the city’s Southwest Side.
Most women who seek abortions are women of color, especially Black women. Restricting access to mifepristone, as a case now before the Supreme Court seeks to do, would worsen racial health disparities.
The Bears have spent months studying the draft. They’ll spend the next one plotting what could happen.
Woman is getting anxious about how often she has to host her husband’s hunting buddy and his wife, who don’t contribute at all to mealtimes.
He launched a campaign against a proposed neo-Nazis march at a time the suburb was home to many Holocaust survivors. His rabbi at Skokie Central Congregation urged Jews to ignore the Nazis. “I jumped up and said, ‘No, Rabbi. We will not stay home and close the windows.’ ”