A sea of maroon shirts and hats flooded Mugsy McGuire’s entertainment center last night – not for unlimited food and drinks, but to ask SIU head football coach Jerry Kill questions.

Mike Reis of Magic 95.1 was on hand to broadcast “An Evening with Jerry Kill.” Questions could be asked by listeners of the radio show and also by those in the bar from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m.

At 5:30 p.m. fans began walking through the doors and hitting the banquet tables and bar. Matt Maier, the owner of Mugsy’s, was frantically running pizzas out to the table for the hungry football followers. With an hour and a half until Kill hit the stage for questions, the food was going fast.

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Maier said this is the first time a football event had been held there, but the success of similar nights for the basketball program prompted the meet-and-greet with Kill.

“It’s important for the fans and Coach Kill was very positive about it,” Maier said. “Of course, he’s always positive. He’s a motivator.”

The crowd was made up of mostly older fans proudly decked out in Saluki gear. One such fan, Andy Marcec of Carbondale, sat in the front row of tables with his wife. The 1956 graduate of SIU had come to Mugsy’s to see the man responsible for the re-emergence of the Saluki football program.

“What interests me about Kill is his leadership abilities,” Marcec said. “He helps young men establish their goals. He could be a CEO of a company, but he’s here coaching football.”

Marcec said he has been following Saluki football since his years as a student and hadn’t seen such school spirit since the season SIU won a national championship. That was more than 20 years ago.

Tom Patalas, also of Carbondale, echoed Marcec’s feelings about Kill. Sporting an SIU hat, he sat with a group of friends waiting for Kill to make his entrance at 7 p.m.

“I think this is great,” Patalas said. “You don’t get this in bigger schools…without donating a lot of money, anyway.”

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The only money involved at Mugsy’s was the $8 cover charge that provided patrons with appetizers, drinks and the chance to ask Kill what they wanted to know about the Salukis.

Among the maroon-splashed room, only a handful of people looked as if they had been born after the Salukis’ championship season in 1983.

Salena Lamke was one of them. The sophomore attends John A. Logan Community College, but was a student at SIU last year. She said she is still a huge fan.

“I came here tonight to meet Coach Kill,” Lamke said. “I want to ask him about this season and what he thinks.”

She said the absence of students was probably due to the football team just turning around last year.

Marcec agreed, saying the fervor of football hadn’t caught on yet after only one year.

“Besides, the students should be studying instead of drinking cheap beer,” Marcec said.

At that point, Kill walked up on the stage and the crowd began to quiet down as Reis explained how the night would proceed. Anyone asking a question was entered in a drawing for various prizes, including Saluki apparel, tickets to the game against Northern Iowa and a genuine Saluki football helmet autographed by all the coaches and players.

Immediately after Reis said that, a line formed behind the two men holding the microphones.

Kill was easygoing as he answered questions concerning everything from the depth of his receivers to his feelings on the team this year, although things got a bit ridiculous during one commercial break.

An advertisement for the evening’s event was heard through the speakers piping the broadcast into the room. Among the fake questions posed in the commercial was one man asking if quarterback Joel Sambursky had a girlfriend-for his daughter, of course. Everyone was chuckling when the next question asked why Kill had gone for two against Northern Illinois. All the heads in the room swiveled almost in unison to focus on Kill.

He simply shook his head and laughed.