As thousands of MSU basketball fans cheered the Spartans on in the Final Four at Lucas Oil Stadium Saturday night, about a five minute walk down the street in downtown Indianapolis sat hundreds of other Spartan fans in the oldest bar in Indiana — the Slippery Noodle Inn.
“It started with Jud Heathcote,” said Slippery Noodle Inn general manager Marty Bacon, referring to the coach’s parties the former MSU head basketball coach used to throw at the bar in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
To this day, the Slippery Noodle Inn continues to be a hotbed for Spartan fans to congregate when a big time MSU sporting event is taking place.
But to look for a man who spurs it on today, look no further than 1989 alumna Paul Quirke, president of the Indy Spartans, an MSU alumni association based in the greater Indianapolis area.
Quirke first started organizing official Indy Spartans events at the Slippery Noodle Inn when the MSU football team was in town for the 2011 Big Ten Championship football game and has continued to do it ever since.
As for Saturday’s turnout at the Slippery Noodle when the No. 7 seed Spartans took on the No. 1 seed Duke Blue Devils in the first of two national semi-final games, Quirke said the amount of green and white he saw at the Slippery Noodle Inn was incredible.
“It was like the whole town of East Lansing had invaded Indianapolis,” Quirke said. “It was great to see all Spartans joining us to celebrate the season the Spartans had.”
Several alumni around the area came out in support of the team Saturday night, like 2013 alumnae Leslie Rochefort, who moved to Indianapolis in January and said she began seeking out Indy Spartans when March Madness began.
But in addition to the alumni around the Indianapolis area who always make their way to the Slippery Noodle Inn, the Final Four also saw many current MSU students who made the trip down to Indianapolis flocking to the bar.
“It was actually recommended by many Michigan State alum to come to (the Slippery Noodle) because they knew it was going to be a high Michigan State turnout,” said advertising senior Julia Raymond, who made the trip with her friends but didn’t have any tickets. “Everyone here is a Michigan State alum or a current Michigan State student so it’s a great place to be for this type of event.”
Many current and former members of the MSU sports teams also made an appearance at Slippery Noodle Saturday evening, from former MSU basketball players Drew Neitzel and Chris Hill, to the majority of the current MSU women’s basketball team.
“I knew from some other people who had been down here for the Big Ten championships ... that they came down (to the Slippery Noodle) and so we decided to come down and watch the game here, since we didn’t get tickets,” senior forward Becca Mills said. “It’s been really fun, especially here with everyone from Michigan State. There’s a lot of people from school that I know so it’s been really cool.”
And for Darien Harris, a senior linebacker on the MSU football team, who came to Indianapolis with some of his teammates for the weekend, he came to the Slippery Noodle after perusing Twitter and finding out it was the place to be for Spartans.
“We saw that Slippery Noodle was kind of going to be the MSU headquarters for the game, so we came straight here, and ended up coming in,” Harris said. “It’s been a great experience so far ... being here and seeing the Spartan faithful here is fantastic. We really get a chance to interact with the fans and see how they are.”
And in the end, even though Bacon himself is a Boilermaker, he loves having the kind of turnout the Slippery Noodle Inn had on Saturday.
“It’s wonderful,” Bacon said of all the MSU fans who showed up on Saturday. “We’ve made such great relationships over the years with the Spartans ... There’s a lot of them in the area ... I would say yesterday, with all the people that were in here, we probably broke all records.”
