Leading a Ram Nation: VCU alumnus reflects on a post-season

Nan Turner

Staff Writer

He is known as “Pav” – short for Pavarotti. He’s a presence at VCU men’s basketball games, home and away. He’s recognizable to fans, players, coaches, media and event staff – well, at least when he has his horns on.

Chris Crowley has assumed the role as leader of Ram Nation four years after his graduation.

Crowley visited VCU in 2001 during his senior year of high school. He said the first person he met was Mike Ellis, associate athletic director for administration. He added his goal was to be a student manager for the men’s basketball team.

Crowley was a manager for the team under Head Coach Mack McCarthy in 2001. After McCarthy left and Jeff Capel was promoted from assistant coach to head coach, Crowley continued to work for the first two years of Capel’s tenure.

But after three years with the team, he left to concentrate on finishing his degree. Due to rigors of working with the team, Crowley said he lost a year of academics and ended up graduating a year later than planned.

Still, Crowley could not stay away from the Siegel Center or the team he had grown so familiar with. While he continued to attend games, he became friends with a group of guys in the VCU Pep Band. At their suggestion and encouragement, he got involved with the Rams in a different capacity.

The band was always trying to push for more school spirit so they decided to start a spinoff group – the Rowdy Rams. Crowley was quickly targeted as a leader for the newly-formed student section and served as vice president in 2005 and co-president the following year. It was also the beginning of the nickname many know him by now.

“Coach Mack used to call me Pavarotti because when you’re a fat, bearded tenor, that’s who people say you look like,” Crowley said. “So that’s why everyone calls me Pav.”

Crowley’s most recognizable trait is perhaps the pair of plush Ram horns he wears on his head during every game. The horns were found by a member of the Pep Band at a costume shop in Woodbridge, Va.

“They ended up on my head most of the season and we figured that’s where they’re supposed to be,” Crowley said. “The company actually went out of business, but my wife has a pair that she wears from time to time.”

Although Crowley frequently wears his horns, they are not his favorite piece of VCU apparel. What is his favorite?

“My original Rowdy Rams shirt, which is now a tattered rag, but I still keep it with me,” Crowley said. “The shirts didn’t have sponsors on the back. It reminds me where we came from, and how we went through all the hard work.”

After graduating in 2006 with a degree in music education, Crowley considered throwing in the horns, but that hasn’t happened yet..

“As long as the students want me down there, I’ll be down there,” he said.

A decade of following the Rams has produced many memories for Crowley. Some occurred when the student section was not known for being so “rowdy.”
During the Rowdy Rams’ inaugural season, Crowley recalls a core group of loyalists who would never miss a game. Sell-outs were not the norm, but you would see some faces in the stands every game without question.
“It was a family in that way, because everybody knew each other,” Crowley said. “There weren’t a lot of students. There were 200 instead of 2,000 – sometimes even less than that. There wasn’t a student section; people weren’t decked out in black and gold.”
Today’s games don’t have such a close-knit feel where everybody knows your name. But that’s a trade-off Crowley is willing to make.
“Two-thousand [fans] down close really made you feel like you had the advantage,” Crowley said.
Although he has loved every second spent in his Ram horns, Crowley said he has a few stand-out memories. One of them came from an unexpected source – a walk-on freshman named Jesse Pella Rosa.
The Rams defeated George Mason in the Colonial Athletic Association’s 2002-03 championship game, 55-54. Pella Rosa hit the free throw against Mason in the last seconds of the game. It was the Rams’ first CAA Championship victory against the Patriots.
“We had beat Mason plenty of other times, but this one made me smile the most,” Crowley said.
Many players have passed through the Siegel Center, but none has had quite the lasting impression on Crowley as Domonic Jones.
“I feel he was the epitome of the humble star,” Crowley said. “I have a whole bunch of favorite players, but he’s probably at the top.”
It’s not surprising that Crowley would admire someone he describes as “humble.” It’s an attribute others would use when speaking about him. He said he doesn’t like attention focused on himself and would rather see it bestowed on all the fans.
“I’d like to see all the fans wearing the horns and cheering, and I’d be a happy man.,” Crowley said. “I’d feel accomplished.”
Crowley was especially happy at all the Rams accomplished during their miraculous run in the NCAA men’s tournament. The underdog darlings of March Madness, VCU beat Southern California, Georgetown, Purdue, Florida State and Kansas to make it to the Final Four. Crowley attended every game except the Purdue matchup.
Someone paid for his flight to San Antonio to see VCU defeat Florida State in the Sweet 16 round and then Kansas in the Elite Eight. Crowley was also present in Houston for the Final Four semifinal game that VCU narrowly lost to Butler University.
Crowley said his favorite experiences during the tournament include hanging out with members of the athletic office staff at the River Walk in San Antonio after the Florida State game.
“It was a great night,” he said. “We knew we were at least getting to the Elite Eight.”
Two nights later, Ram fans everywhere rejoiced after the victory against Kansas, and Crowley was no exception.
“I sat down after the Kansas win and just thought about how we were there and no one can take that away from us,” he said. “I was proud for the fans.”
On the sidelines, Crowley was most impressed with the work of the VCU Pep Band. In his opinion, they’re the best in the country. Crowley says the band should be praised with the team and deserves all the positive press they’ve been given.
Watching videos of the team coming home to screaming fans in the Siegel Center struck an emotional chord with Crowley.
“To see 7,500 show up to welcome the team home at 1 a.m. culminated everything we set out for.”
Crowley has lived in the Richmond area for 10 years and said that he had never seen the city so united.
As time passes and new players take the Siegel Center court, Crowley said he hopes some things stay the same.
“This team has players that you want to cheer for,” he said. “They’re likeable, well mannered and smart. When you have a team that good, how can you not want them to succeed – not just at basketball, but how can you not want them to succeed at life?”