Chicago

Easter Plans Change Due to Loyola Game Pride

Holy Week has already begun and Easter vigil services at Old St. Patrick’s Church will be on hold as fans pray for Loyola’s miracle run to continue.

Loyola Ramblers fans said the Cinderella team is on a “Mission from God,” and a man of the cloth has noticed.

“Even to mention Loyola this past Sunday, the place erupted,” Father Thomas Hurley expressed. “Everybody’s thrilled for them, how can you not be?”

Father Thomas Hurley at Old St. Patrick’s is playing to his audience—by waiting until after Loyola’s Final Four game against Michigan to start Saturday night’s Easter Vigil.

The mentality behind it is to give parishioners time to watch the highly-anticipated basketball game without feeling rushed to attend mass on time nor skipping services altogether.

“There’s no excuse,” Father Hurley said laughing. “We’ve provided for them to be here.”

Although Father Hurley is a Loyola graduate, he claims he’s still welcoming to the non-believers.

“We have a couple of Michigan people too,” he said. “So we got to be nice to them too.”

Though religiously-speaking, he admits to occasionally making exceptions to the rule when it comes to the team he’s rooting for--the only other time he has changed mass was for the Bears 2007 Super Bowl.

Loyola has been getting an enormous support from across the Chicago area and head coach Porter Moser said it hasn’t gone unnoticed.

“This has meant so much to me...I love the Chicago pride and it’s really had a huge impact on me,” Moser said.

“It’s just a basketball city and for us to be representing the whole city on a nationwide scale is definitely really, really cool,” said Ramblers junior guard Clayton Custer.

If Loyola wins on Saturday, there’s no doubt the team will be in good position for Monday’s championship game.

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