Aug. 30, 2011
On the first day of fall semester classes, more than 50 CUA students gathered to compete with President John Garvey in a game of Knockout to inaugurate the University's new basketball court next to the Eugene I. Kane Student Fitness Center.
With the tunes of "Space Jam" and "Eye of the Tiger" carrying over the loudspeaker, students gathered on the court to take some warm-up shots with the President. A few students then demonstrated how the game works. Two players take shots from the foul line. The person in the front of the line must make a basket before the person behind them does or else they're knocked out of the tournament.
When the game started and President Garvey stepped up to the foul line to take his first shot, it swished through the net, eliciting a chorus of "oohs" from the crowd.
A couple of rounds later, President Garvey was knocked out of the game by Andrea Villena-Lanzi, a senior politics major from Palm Beach, Fla.
Villena-Lanzi shrugged her shoulders as she walked to the back of the line to continue in the tournament. "Now I'm going to fail," she joked to the spectators. "I'm not going to graduate."
Students sitting on the grass next to the court cheered on the competitors as their number dwindled. In the end, Chris Prudente, a senior politics major from Allentown, Pa., was the last one standing.
"I did not practice for the Knockout game, but did get to warm up with a couple pick-up games beforehand," he said. Prudente walked away with an iPad2 as a prize.
