Silcox | Time to queue up a new Line

From its early years in the 1960s, when students literally slept outside the Palestra for season tickets, to Penn Athletics becoming involved in the ’90s, to this weekend, The Line, like many Penn traditions, has seen its share of evolution.

It’s time for natural selection to run its course once again.

While the programming was fun and engaging for all who attended, players and fans alike commented that they had hoped to see a higher turnout.

Unfortunately, with the current student body and basketball program, higher turnout is unlikely.

Too much has changed about Penn basketball from the days when current athletic director Steve Bilsky played and took the team to the NCAA Tournament East Regional Final. The Quakers went 6-22 last year, while Bilsky’s Elite Eight team was 26-0.

According to Bilsky, even when The Line became a Penn sanctioned event in the early 1990s, there were nearly 800 people sleeping over at the Palestra.

But today, the student body’s attention has shifted away from athletics. A generation ago, basketball games were the weekend event. Today, they are one of hundreds of options advertised on Locust Walk each day. Sleeping on the uncomfortable Palestra concourse is only part of the problem.

“The only thing I said to the [Red and Blue Crew] is ‘Look, I’m very big on tradition.’ I hate the fact that there are some traditions that have taken place on this campus … that don’t exist anymore,” Bilsky said earlier this year. “I just don’t want to end The Line.”

Bilsky said he will never forget seeing Penn fans line up outside the Palestra to support him, and taking that away from today’s teams would be a mistake.

I don’t want to end the line either. I’m a sucker for tradition, and I’d hate to see a piece of Penn’s vast history vanish.

The toast is here to stay, and Penn is bringing streamers back to the Palestra. But the toast toss has changed from the original highball toast. And streamers aren’t being thrown as they were in the ’80s, rather, they have adapted. It’s time to adapt The Line to 2010. As it is, the event is not attracting enough fans to the historic arena on 33rd Street.

Getting rid of the “Line Announcement” was a start to increasing accessibility, but a hundred-odd freshmen will not create a basketball culture.

“You’ve got to make The Line pertinent,” Bilsky said. “I don’t know how you’re going to do it. I understand it’s a challenge.”

On a Friday night, students are going to concerts and parties. So make The Line just that: a place that students (and not just freshmen) will choose to be.

The real challenge will be making the event more relevant to the student body, while maintaining the interactive aspect between fans and players that the event has come to be over the last two years.

The stands at the Palestra might not fill up until the team finds more success. But reestablishing The Line as a campus to-do will make it all the sweeter when the Quakers start winning.

CALDER SILCOX is a junior science, technology and society major from Washington, D.C., and is Sports Editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. His e-mail address is silcox@theDP.com.

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