gweb

January 2nd, 2021 at 4:20 PM ^

Growing up I couldn’t understand why all these recruits so loved USC. Then my daughter started looking at schools and it’s her number one choice out here in So Cal so we visited the campus. Now I totally understand. Hard to turn down!

Joined: 01/10/2010

MGoPoints: 3011

Twitch

January 2nd, 2021 at 5:05 PM ^

Sports teams apparently have the power to do this.  Took in a game at Wrigley field a couple years ago and sat next to a guy who said he  grew up there and said 30 years prior you basically paid the gang bangers to watch your car while you were at the game.  Said the neighborhood had come a LONG way since then.  Perhaps someone else from Chicago on here can confirm or tell me I was lied to.

Joined: 01/01/2019

MGoPoints: 3832

blueheron

January 2nd, 2021 at 5:41 PM ^

Time permitting, take a long walk around Wrigleyville. Maybe make a circle with a half-mile radius. You'll see plenty of old homes and almost no vacant lots.

I work with a couple of people who were "gentrified" out of that neighborhood in the '80s. They'd probably take issue with the "gang banger" remark. It never bottomed out in the way that (e.g.) North Lawndale did.

Related: To hear some long-time residents of Wicker Park talk, the air was filled with bullets in the early '90s (and they were plenty tough to live there). Doesn't exactly map to reality ...

Joined: 03/26/2009

MGoPoints: 30964

Other Andrew

January 2nd, 2021 at 6:05 PM ^

Yeah, whatever that guy told you, Twitch, quite exaggerated to say the least. Only incident in my many visits 30-35 years ago: in the bleachers one fine afternoon,  a chubby, balding-and-also-mulleted mexican in a tuxedo came up to me and my friend and slurred, “Party at Murphy’s Bleachers after the game....!” We were 12. First time I met a drunk person!

Lakeview has indeed improved, but what cleaned up the wider radius, more than anything was the development of Boys Town (gay district). Wrigley was built long before and hasn’t been a factor in improved quality of life.

Back on topic, USC’s campus feels like the Hearst Mansion or something equally opulent. The moment you set foot on it you see why they can recruit at that level. At least that was my first thought.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 7683

Vote_Crisler_1937

January 2nd, 2021 at 6:20 PM ^

Re: Wrigley

growing up in the late 80s early 90s watching WGN you saw lawn chairs and people standing on the rooftops. I was told those were lower tier apartment buildings and had low income housing provisions in them. 
 

When I lived in Wrigleyville those rooftops were multi-million dollar corporately owned buildings that AFAIK nobody lived or stayed in. They were 3 story bars with rooftop bleachers. 

Joined: 11/07/2011

MGoPoints: 15517

ERdocLSA2004

January 2nd, 2021 at 4:44 PM ^

The rich get richer.  I can’t blame anyone who wants their college experience at USC.  I continue to be impressed that OSU recruits so well.  If you’re a 5-star and can pick your school, why would you go anywhere except USC or Alabama?  Not a damn thing is special about Columbus.  Bagmen I guess?  I’m sure that’s not an issue at other places either though.

Joined: 01/08/2011

MGoPoints: 16071

ERdocLSA2004

January 2nd, 2021 at 4:56 PM ^

Yeah but they win and send dudes to the NFL because they recruit well.  It’s not exclusive to OSU.  If you’re a 5 star, you can still go to Alabama and go to the NFL.  I’m surprised they are this consistent in their geographic area.  No team from the northern part of the country has been this successful at recruiting for this long.  There is really no excuse for UF, FSU, Miami, USC, to not be great every year.  

Joined: 01/08/2011

MGoPoints: 16071

WeimyWoodson

January 2nd, 2021 at 5:13 PM ^

As much as we hate it, OSU is an elite brand for college football. They have been building to this since Tressle was hired. This was not an overnight raking in 5* talent. Since the year 2000, they have 16 seasons with 10+ wins, 5 appearances in the national championships title game, 4 playoff appearances, and 2 titles. 

On top of that, they develop a ton of NFL talent and put a lot in the 1st round. Taking the Michigan blinders off if you were a 16-18-year-old top talent football player why would you not choose OSU over Michigan or really anywhere? Alabama is the only other team you can say has had that much of a run since the clock stuck 2000.

Joined: 08/25/2015

MGoPoints: 14734

JonnyHintz

January 2nd, 2021 at 5:14 PM ^

OSU has been winning and sending dudes to the NFL for YEARS. They built their program to what it is now starting with Tressel in the early 2000’s by recruiting Ohio. Ohio is (and especially was then) one of the hotbeds for high school talent. Michigan and OSU were top 10 programs nationally primarily by recruiting the state of Ohio in the 90’s. 
 

Tressel took over in 2001. Since then, OSU has failed to win double digit games just 4 times... and that’s including this season in which theyre 7-0.

No other team in the north has been this successful recruiting because no other team in the north is the only P5 program in an extremely talent rich state and has had enough success to recruit at an elite level nationally. 

Joined: 01/11/2015

MGoPoints: 48407