The Gorloks Keep the Game Alive by Helping a Rival Team

This past weekend, Anderson University from Indiana found that they had friends in the most unexpected places. In this case, it was their rivals on the basketball court – the Gorloks.

The Ravens, Anderson’s women’s basketball team, was headed to Webster University for the two-day “Webster Tip-Off Classic” tournament when one of the team’s vans was broken into and most of the team’s and member’s belongings were stolen. Missing were their basketball shoes, team uniforms, personal backpacks, wallets, credits cards, and even classroom assignments that members hoped to work on between games.

But the Gorloks came to the rescue. The coaching staff and members of Webster’s women’s basketball team quickly went into action when they learned of the theft and secured shoes, uniforms, and other essentials.

“In the end, this is about good sportsmanship, camaraderie and helping out when you can,” said Webster University Director of Athletics Scott Kilgallon. “While we may be rivals on the court, this is really about making this a good college experience, even in difficult situations.”

According to Anderson Women’s Basketball Coach Jon Gin, the Anderson team was excited to be headed to St. Louis. None of the members had visited before. When the team’s bus crossed over the Mississippi River and the team caught site of the famous Gateway Arch, a quick detour was made so that they could get a group photo in front of the landmark.

Gin told reporters that the team was away from the bus for 20 to 30 minutes. When they returned, they found that the doors had been forced open.

“A lot of our stuff was missing, including our jerseys, shoes, backpacks with laptops, iPads, iPods, all kind of stuff,” Gin said, adding that The Ravens were set to play against the Milwaukee School of Engineering’s Raiders in less than four hours after the discovery of the theft, and no shoes or uniforms to play them in.

When Webster University Women’s Basketball Coach Jordan Olufson and the rest of the athletics department learned of the incident, they immediately jumped into action. Calls were made to area sports stores to immediately find new athletic shoes and other necessary equipment needed for the game. A spare set of uniforms were retrieved out of the Gorlok storage for the Ravens. And the tournament was delayed for about 20 minutes so that the Ravens could properly size and prepare the replacement equipment. The Ravens went on to beat the Raiders 66 to 60 Friday night.

“They play fast, shoot lots of threes, are well coached and are scrappy,” Olufson said about the Ravens. “I feel like they played the same way that they handled this situation. They are resilient and showed it both on court and off court.”

On Saturday, the Ravens and the Gorloks played against each other for the tournament title, creating the unusual circumstance where both teams had “Gorloks” on the front of their jerseys. The Ravens wore white Gorlok uniforms with blue striping, while the Gorloks wore black uniforms with gold striping. Webster ended up winning 101 to 62.

Afterward, though, both teams posed for a group photo in recognition of the friendships they had made.