Sun-Times: Boylan on Marquette days

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MARQUETTE DAYS: Boylan had ample perks

Boy, oh, Boylan.

Two games into the Jim Boylan era, the Bulls are doing much better than they did under predecessor Scott Skiles. Granted, two games hardly merit a legitimate statistical sampling.

But there is an indication Bulls fans can hold on to playoff hopes. Just as the former Marquette guard -- a member of the 1977 NCAA champions -- can hold on to his college memories.

Of that 1977 Al McGuire-coached championship experience, Boylan told reporters:

''You're in college, so you think you know stuff, but you really don't know all that much. It was fun. I remember Al telling us, 'If we win the championship, it's going to be like you're standing in a barn and someone opens up the hayloft and all the hay starts to fall down around you. It's going to be something that engulfs you and, as time goes on, will become greater and greater in your life.' It was true.''

Boylan's championship perks?

''I always got a free bowl of Real Chili,'' he said. ''Got my laundry done at the laundry mat. So things were pretty good back then. My job at Miller beer, that was pretty good. I worked in the bottling house, like Laverne and Shirley watching bottles go by. I worked in the shipping department, loading freight cars. And in what they called the leaker room. The leaker room was when they made pallets of beer, sometimes the pallet machines would miss a case. So they would have to bring it to the leaker room. Bernard Toone and I worked there, and we'd have to break down the case. And each state has different beer. So you can't send beer for Kentucky to Tennessee. So you had to make sure you stuck the right case in there and fix it back up. Then they'd come and pick it up.''