ESPN March Madness with GLOs

[TSteven]

What happens when a 45-year-old man spends three weeks on college campuses with frat boys and coeds during March Madness? It's no movie, it's the current life of Page 2's Jim Caple. His odyssey begins with No. 1 Illinois.

Two interesting ESPN feature articles regarding campus life during March Madness. Mr. Caple starts with Sigma Phi Epsilon at Illinois.

Fountain of youth in Illinois
By Jim Caple
Page 2

CHAMPAIGN-URBANA, Ill. – Here I am at 3:30 a.m., sitting in an unheated room of an 80-year-old fraternity house with deadline approaching fast and me stuck somewhere in that stretch between blissfully drunk, dead tired and miserably hung over. At this moment, the act of putting into words all the thoughts loping through my mind seems akin to chasing fruit bats with a lasso.

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Over the next three weeks, I will live my own March Madness, crashing at frat houses, dorm rooms, sorority annexes, apartments and houses that should have been condemned when Kendall Gill was in school. I will sleep on couches, pull all-nighters and tap kegs. I will appear on campus stations and write for school papers. I will experience as much as possible of modern college life.

Some good old Illinois hospitality
By Jim Caple
Page 2

"Dear Jim: I live in the Sigma Phi Epsilon house at the University of Illinois. I am not gonna lie – if you are coming to campus, there is no reason not to stay with us. First, location; we are right on a busy street providing plenty of opportunities to direct traffic after Illini wins wearing a full-body Tigger suit. Second, we have a 58-inch plasma HDTV, 'nuff said. Finally, our house is full of true fans. While other frats were busy getting freshman girls drunk and talking about Dave Matthews, guys from my house and I have taken road trips to watch the Illini destroy Purdue, Iowa and Wisconsin; and, most recently, we painted my '94 Buick Roadmaster orange and blue and drove seven hours to Ann Arbor to watch us beat Michigan. We are a bunch of fun-loving guys who love sports, beer and the Illini and we would love for you to stay with us."