Toothpaste and Folk Song

De Paul University, my undergraduate alma mater, has lost its way, sports wise, as evidenced by the 3-15 record of its men’s basketball team. On top of that, the Blue Demons have lost nineteen straight conference games in the Big East, dating to last season. You know what that means, right? Yup, head coach Tony Stubblefield got the boot yesterday. Back when I rode a dinosaur to class up in Lincoln Park, the basketball program was the little engine that could. Ray Meyer was Ray Meyer, and his personality filled Alumni Hall, along with 5,300 screaming fans, give or take. Then the Blue Demons headed for the suburbs in 1980, and something got lost. Meyer tried but failed to make himself into a new-school coach. After 42 years, the father stepped down in 1984 in favor of his son, Joey, who led the team to a .594 winning percentage over thirteen seasons. De Paul saw fit to fire Joey Meyer after the 1997 season. The Meyer tandem coached the Blue Demons over the course of 55 years. Since then, it’s been six coaches and not much success over the last 27 seasons. The school thought moving back to the city in 2017 would help fix things. It hasn’t. The problem with Wintrust Arena is that it’s 8.4 miles and two “L” lines away on the South Side. If the idea was to pack the 10,000-plus seats with students walking over from the dorms to take the Red Line to the Green Line, it hasn’t happened. It might, but then you’d need a reason to go, and the Blue Demons haven’t played better than .500 since 2019. Like the saying goes, you can’t put toothpaste back in the tube once it’s been squeezed out. The team never should’ve left Lincoln Park. Alumni Hall II could’ve been built on campus back in the late ’70s or early ’80s, but the neighborhood is different now, very upscale and unhappy over plans for a proposed practice facility. In the words of Joni Mitchell, you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. De Paul abandoned paradise and can’t find the way back.