Bears ready for Super Bowl; campus prepares for Shuffle
Chicago Bears defensive end Alex Brown (96) celebrates in the snow after the NFC championship football game against the New Orleans Saints, Sunday, Jan. 21, 2007, in Chicago. The Bears defeated the Saints, 39-14, to win the NFC title. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
January 22, 2007
Two years ago, Illini fans rushed Wright and Green Streets as their basketball team earned a bid to the championship game.
Amid a slushy snow, however, the heart of campus was much quieter Sunday, as the Chicago Bears beat the New Orleans Saints 39-14 in Chicago to clinch the NFC Championship and earn a bid to Super Bowl XLI.
A few fans of the other orange and blue sounded car horns as they cruised Green Street, or started sporadic snowball fights while walking home from bars and parties where they watched the game. But for a campus that went crazy over the Cubs in 2003, the Illini in 2004-05 and the World Series Champion White Sox in 2005, this celebration seemed dampened by the wet chill that settled onto Champaign-Urbana only hours earlier.
“We’re all seniors, and we were expecting a lot more people to be out here,” said Jessica Colantonio, senior in LAS, who was on Green Street with four friends after watching the Bears game at an apartment party. “But we watched the Super Bowl Shuffle video the whole game, which I know is why they won.”
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Campustown became more active as crowds drained from area bars, with revelers high-fiving random strangers and screaming while they walked through a chilly mist. A group in replica jerseys stopped traffic at Sixth and Green Streets to dance in the intersection.
While some settled in to watch the Colts and Patriots face off in the AFC Championship, and others headed home, plans began to sprout in preparation for the next Bears game in Miami on Feb. 4. An employee at the campus clothing store Gameday Spirit said the store will have Bears gear for sale around mid-week.
“We’re going to go get some celebratory cigars, we’re going to smoke them, have a good time for the rest of the night, then we’re planning a road trip to Miami,” Matt Crocker said as he left Firehaus, 708 S. Sixth St. with friend Steve Hernandez, both seniors in LAS. “I’m going to pack up my soccer-mom minivan that I drive – it’s got a VHS player and we’re going to be playing the ’85 Bears the whole way down and we’re going to have a good time.”
