by Mikal J. Harris

DE Campus Life Editor

Mike Mandis has watched his Dawg Pound evolve

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from being a small group of friends who like to go nuts at Saluki basketball games to becoming a full-fledged phenomenon of hundreds of fans.

Today it seems as if the Dawg Pound has shrunk to a small kennel. But make no mistake about it, members of the Dawg Pound are present at every men’s basketball home game.

This is no ordinary feat for this group of Saluki students and fans, considering attendance at basketball games has dropped significantly in recent years. During the 1994-95 season, men’s basketball games drew an average of 6,442 fans to SIU Arena. In comparison, Saturday’s loss at home to Creighton drew a paltry 3,212.

Of course, the men’s basketball team compiled an outstanding 23-9 record during the 1994-95 season. Saturday’s loss only pushed the Salukis’ record further below the .500 mark. One can venture there is a strong correlation between game attendance and winning records.

But Dawg Pound members may be a tad too loyal to fit this explanation. The actual number of Dawg Pound members at Saluki home basketball games may vary, as jobs and studies often conflict with the Salukis’ home schedule. Still, members of the Dawg Pound can always be found in Section L of the Arena solidly standing by their team.

Mandis, Dawg Pound coordinator and sponsor, would even argue that Dawg Pound members deserve a spot on the team roster because of their loyalty and enthusiasm for the team.

I think we’re really the sixth man, he said. No matter what the Salukis’ record we’ve stood by the team through the ups and downs.

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We make the game fun, and usually anyone who sits with us will sit with us again. The arena would be a very quiet place without us.

Garbed in their signature maroon and white T-shirts, the Dawg Pound loves to taunt and jeer opposing teams at decibel levels equal to those produced at heavy metal concerts. When an opposing team is forced to shoot free throws at the Pound’s end of the court, Section L runs amok with a number of wild tactics designed to make shooters at the line resemble Shaquille O’Neal on his worst day.

A sea of waving hands and a cacophony of ear-splitting noise is sure to greet opposing players each trip up and down the court courtesy of the Dawg Pound. If a Saluki player slam dunks during a game, Pound members create a mass of bodies by jumping on each other and creating a Dawgpile.

During the 1994-95 season, the Pound ran the risk of earning the Salukis technical fouls for its vulgar and crude behaviors.

Mandis says the Pound has toned things down in the years since.

A few years ago the Dawg Pound was a little more offensive than it is now, he said, But anyone wearing a Dawg Pound shirt tries not to shout anything that would be offensive to SIU fans or that would upset our business sponsors.

Parents let their kids sit with us now, so you can find kids from 4-to 5-years old all the way up to junior high sitting in the Dawg Pound. Professionals in their 40s want to sit with us.

Brian R. Powell, afternoon disk jockey at WXLT 95.1 FM, is a Dawg Pound veteran who attends every Saluki home game. Powell is one of the most vocal Pound members, although he prefers to stay out of the Dawgpiles.

The last time I got near the Dawgpile I got my glasses broken, he said, laughing. I didn’t like that because I couldn’t see the rest of the game.

But the love of the game keeps Powell coming back to the Dawg Pound. He would like to see the Dawg Pound expand to its former size of about 200 members.

For me it just captures the spirit and essence of college basketball, he said. It’s nice to be with the people who are hanging onto every play of the game, and we encourage a lot more people to come and sit with us.

Some of our antics may scare people off, but I just hope fans at the game enjoy us the way we enjoy ourselves.

Although the Dawg Pound has become more responsible, there is no escaping the fact that the group is smaller than in past years, but what the Pound is missing in size, it makes up with unbridled school spirit.

As one of the original Dawg Pound members, Mandis said spirit has been with the Pound since its humble beginnings.

About six years ago, the Dawg Pound started out as five or six friends who would come to every men’s basketball game. The group earned its nickname from a member of the Saluki Booster Club, and its membership swelled to about 170 members after a local radio station began supplying the group with T-shirts. Mandis soon spearheaded the effort to obtain business sponsors for the group so Dawg Pound members could attend road games and receive free food during basketball games.

Mike Trude, the SIUC Athletic Department’s coordinator of public information, calls the Dawg Pound one of the Saluki basketball program’s most cherished assets. He said the basketball players and staff really appreciate the Pound.

They’ve maintained a stranglehold on Section L for quite some time, he said. They’re fanatics about Saluki basketball, and the Dawg Pound includes most of our hard-core fans.

One year the players actually went into the stands to thank the Dawg Pound after the season was over. Coach Herrin and the players really appreciate the support the Dawg Pound brings to the games.

New Dawg Pound member Tyna Horn, a junior in mechanical engineering from Joliet, said her vocal support of the team during games often leaves her hoarse the next morning.

Nevertheless, she looks forward to attending Saluki basketball games with her Dawg Pound cohorts.

Watching the game is great, but screaming with the Dawg Pound during games is worth getting hoarse, she said. I felt more into the game. It’s a totally different experience.