Saluki athletes and coaches are set to hit the road – and then the bars.

The second annual Saluki Caravan departs Thursday for the first stop at Sammy’s Sports Bar and Grill in Springfield. The traveling event is a partnership between the SIU Alumni Association and athletic department where coaches and athletes reach out to alumni who live outside southern Illinois.

Coaches on the caravan include men’s basketball coach Chris Lowery, women’s basketball coach Dana Eikenberg and new football coach Dale Lennon. Athletes scheduled to appear include basketball players Bryan Mullins, Tony Boyle and Erica Smith with track and field star Brittany Riley, among others.

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Athletic Director Mario Moccia, who will also travel with the caravan, said it is important for the athletes and coaches to keep in touch with the fans who are unable to drive to Carbondale.

“We can only do so much sitting behind our desks,” Moccia said. “The mountain can’t go to Muhammad, so Muhammad has to go to the mountain.”

Moccia said there was a caravan that started the year before he arrived in 2006, but it visited the towns surrounding Carbondale as opposed to St. Louis and Chicago as they do now.

The caravan will stop at a total of four bars in three cities. Fans in attendance can socialize with the athletes and coaches before a formal address concludes the two-hour event.

Argus Tong, director of off-campus programs for the Alumni Association, said he tries to put student-athletes in the cities closest to their hometowns.

Mullins and Riley, who are from suburbs Downers Grove and Flossmoor, respectively, will visit the Chicago bars. Boyle and Smith hail from De Soto, Mo., and Florissant, Mo., respectively, and will attend the St. Louis stop.

“The alums are very appreciative that the coaches sacrifice their time and they can see the local athletes who went on to SIU,” Tong said. “We had such a good turnout last year that we added a second location in Chicago.”

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The Salukis will also have help from alumni in the events. ESPN radio personality and SIUC radio-television alumnus Marc Silverman will host the events in Chicago.

Moccia said it is increasingly important to keep alumni involved with SIU because of major fundraising projects like Saluki Way, which includes the construction of a new football stadium and renovations to SIU Arena.

The caravan is not only focused on alumni but prospective students as well. With the university facing decreased enrollment figures, Moccia and Tong said this is a great way to show the quality education available at SIU through the student-athletes’ academic successes.

“I’ve gotten e-mails from parents of prospective student-athletes interested in SIU and attending the event,” Moccia said. “I would hope this event would be one way to convince them to attend SIU, even if they don’t play on one of the teams.”

Former SIU golfer Samantha Sambursky said the event is also fun for the athletes.

Sambursky, now an assistant coach with the women’s golf team, was one of the students to go to Sammy’s Sports Bar and Grill last year for the caravan and said it got a great reception from the alumni.

“We had it at Sammy’s, which I’ve been to many times since it’s where I watched all the Saluki games when I was home for Christmas,” Sambursky said. “It was fun to have all my family and friends come out.”

After the stop in Springfield, the caravan will make stops at Morgan Street Brewery in St. Louis May 6, The Cubby Bear in Lincolnshire May 7 and Harry Caray’s Restaurant in Chicago May 8.

Jeff Engelhardt can be reached at 536-3311 ext. 269 or [email protected]