Stay collegial at Wrigleyville – Chicago Magazine

When Big Ten students complete four years but want to continue partying, they move to Wrigleyville, an area crowded with college bars, like any off-campus in Madison or Ann Arbor. It is a rite of the Midwest.

Tuesday night at Slugger’s World Class Sports Bar and Grill, Indiana bars near the corner of Clark and Addison, Evan Caldwell and his friends Zack, Jack and Alex drink green beer, score balls and watch their Hoosiers play with the Wyoming Cowboys. in the game of the first four NCAA tournaments. They’re all recent Indiana University graduates, and they show it by dressing in red.

“I think Wrigleville is a young district,” said Caldwell, 26, who got a job in risk management after graduating from IU in 2020 and shares an apartment with two Purdue graduates from his hometown of Fort Wayne. “It’s near Cubs Stadium, the bars are open until 2-3 p.m. You can also go back to college before you go back to work. ”

Ari Strauss, co-owner of Sluggers, graduated from IU in 2006, returned home to Chicago and helped turn his family’s bar into a party pit for his classmates. “SLAGGER’S COUNTRY IS SUCH A COUNTRY!” announces an ad screen next to “ASK YOUR SERVER ABOUT CHEESE CREATURES TODAY!”

“I felt compelled to make it the only Indiana bar in Wrigleyville,” Strauss says. The bar, owned by the Strauss family since 1985, is the perfect place to attract Hoosiers: “Chicago is the heart of the Big Ten Country. All graduates of the Big Ten, if they want to move to a big city, you move to Chicago. Younger people tend to live the first couple of years in Lake View and Lincoln Park. ”

Here is a list of the Big Ten graduates in Chicago, according to LinkedIn profiles:

1. Illinois – 118,770

2. North-West – 54 010

3. Purdue – 36,767

4. Indiana – 36,146

5. Wisconsin – 35 158

6. Iowa – 24,803

7. Michigan – 18,958

8. Michigan – 18,952

9. Ohio State – 9191

10. Minnesota – 6656

11. Penn State – 5032

12. Nebraska – 2812

13. Maryland – 2570

14. Rutgers – 1987

Nine Big Ten schools have been selected to participate in the NCAA tournament, more than in any other conference. Most have bars for alumni next door, says Strauss, who helped us identify them.

• Michigan: The Stretch3845 N. Clark St.
• Wisconsin: Lottie’s Pub1925 W. Cortland St., and Wills Northwoods Inn3030 Ave. N. Racine
• Purdue: Waterhouse Tavern3407 N Peacock st.
• Iowa: Merkel Bar3516 N. Clark St.
• Ohio: Old Crow Smokehouse3506 N. Clark St.
• Michigan: Duffy’s Tavern and Grill420 W. Diversey Pkwy.
• Minnesota: The panel is the other side2436 N. Clark St.
• Penn State: “Who cares?” (Among old Big Ten fans, there is a belief that Penn State, Nebraska, Rutgers and Maryland will never be true participants in the conference. The Rutgers Bar in Chicago sounds absurd.)

“Interestingly,” says Strauss, “the only one you can’t find is Illinois.” A bar in Illinois, Chicago would be similar to a Bears bar. It’s hard to find Illinois, and hard to find the Northwest. You can just go to Evanston for Northwestern.

Indiana will beat Wyoming, 66-58, to the great relief of Zack, who bet $ 200 on the Hoosiers at -3½, although he, like any player, knows he should never bet his favorite team. In the last minutes of the game, Zack stands anxiously, putting his hands on his head and stroking his chin. When Indiana performs a free throw to grow to seven, he shouts, “Three can’t beat me! The three of them can’t beat me! ”

The win means Indiana enters the real tournament in the 12th issue against St. Mary at 18:20 on Thursday. It also means more business for Slugger’s.

“We will be packed on Thursday,” Strauss predicts. “I think we are a good fit for Hoosier fans. The Slaggers have nothing pretentious, and Bloomington has nothing pretentious. It’s a good place to lift your legs and wear what you want to wear like you were in college ”.