When LBK and I started dating, a Cyclone game watch for any football or sporting event was 20-50 people tops, at a parade of ever-rotating Chicago bars.

Fast Forward 15 years, and they're to the point where they've been packing Murphy's Bleachers for football and basketball games on the reg.

We'll see how that changes as the football team is decimated, but LBK will be the first to tell you that when she moved here 20 years ago that the ISU alumni pool here felt pretty much non-existent, and she's blown away by the explosion. I remember when we saw her first ISU billboard off the expressway over a decade ago and thought, "Oh, they're FINALLY targeting Chicago."