AU Fans Just Can't Wait To Get Their Phil

A season-high 3,994 fans came to Bender Arena yesterday to watch American face its Purple Whale. The Eagles had lost seven straight to arch rival Holy Cross, 13 of 16 overall. The particularly tortured fans still remember 2002 and 2003, when the Crusaders knocked off American in consecutive Patriot League tournament finals.

But that rivalry wasn't the only reason a hyperactive student contingent play-acted at high-major fanaticism throughout a back-and-forth thriller that saw eight ties in the final 18 minutes. The rivalry alone couldn't explain the soccer chants washing over the crowd, the two fans in the front row waving Czech national flags like it was 1989, the "Go Eagles!" rally towels and the AU foam fingers. Why such spirit? It was Phil Bender day.

Many of the students weren't quite sure exactly who this Phil Bender fella was; he must have donated the money that paid for Bender Arena, several surmised.

And so it was left to a lowly blogger to deliver the stunning truth. The "Phil Bender" moniker was birthed by a group of pun-loving students six years ago in an effort to turn one game a year into an event. Their imaginary Phil came with an imagined caricature of a short, chubby bald guy. The arena, sad to say, was funded by Howard and Sondra Bender and named after Howard's father, Jack.

"Wait, there's not a Phil Bender? Goodness gracious," freshman Ben Corson said.

"I don't believe you," sophomore Josh Cook said.

"Jack Bender? That's pretty lame," junior Matt Wilson said.

"I feel like I've been lied to all these years," junior Jesse Goldberg said.

"My world's been turned upside down," freshman Josh Linder said. "Did he have a brother named Phil?" he asked, hopefully.

Not that we know of, but that hasn't stopped Phil Bender from becoming Tenleytown's Super Bowl, complete with celebrity appearances (a halftime hand wave from national champion wrestler Josh Glenn), corporate largesse (free smoothies from Robeks and free quesadillas from Guapo's), extraneous rabble-rousers (activists handing out fliers in favor of Barack Obama and opposed to global warming) and a crowd nearly 100 percent larger than this season's previous high.

(The event has even spread to other American teams at other venues. The field hockey and women's lacrosse teams play "Phil Jacobs" games at Jacobs Recreational Complex, and the men's and women's soccer teams play "Phil Reeves" games at Reeves Field.)

Last year's Phil Bender drew 4,775, an arena record that surpassed Bender's seated capacity. Students sport "I Did Phil Bender" T-shirts and refer to the day as "State School Saturday," because of the one-weekend spike in a particular strain of face-painting, foot-stomping, profanity-chanting school spirit.