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DePaul's 'Demon Warrior' Pumped for Big East Women's Tourney

By Justin Breen | March 5, 2014 8:36am | Updated on March 5, 2014 8:51am
 DePaul University master's student Andre Bobb is the "Demon Warrior" at Blue Demons women's basketball games.
DePaul University master's student Andre Bobb is the "Demon Warrior" at Blue Demons women's basketball games.
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Andre Bobb

LINCOLN PARK — For most of the year, Andre Bobb is a DePaul University master's student living just off campus.

But during women's basketball games, Bobb morphs into the self-titled "Demon Warrior" — a helmet-wearing, paint-covered, foot-stomping Blue Demons fanatic.

"I'm fully committed," said Bobb, 24.

The No. 25 Blue Demons (24-6) won their first Big East regular-season championship and are the top seed and hosts for the conference tournament, which begins Saturday at McGrath-Phillips Arena. The quarterfinals, semifinals and finals run Sunday through Tuesday at Allstate Arena in Rosemont.

Bobb will attend at least Saturday's game. He works full time and takes a heavy course load in his Social and Cultural Foundations in Education discipline.

 DePaul University master's student Andre Bobb is the "Demon Warrior" at Blue Demons women's basketball games. Here he poses with his friend and fellow Blue Demons fan, Jamie McNeal (l.)
DePaul University master's student Andre Bobb is the "Demon Warrior" at Blue Demons women's basketball games. Here he poses with his friend and fellow Blue Demons fan, Jamie McNeal (l.)
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Jamie McNeal

But he puts everything aside when DePaul's women's hoops team plays on campus. Bobb carries his gear in a duffel bag and changes into "Demon Warrior" in a McGrath-Phillips Arena bathroom. He paints a red-and-blue goatee on his face, with three lines of the same colors under his eyes.

Wearing a DePaul tank top with the sleeves cut, he draws "tribal designs" on his shoulder. His garb includes DePaul soccer socks — one red, the other blue — Blue Demons sunglasses, blue shorts and red gym shoes.

Bobb tops it off with a Viking helmet he won for prevailing in a DePaul history trivia contest when he was a resident adviser as a senior undergraduate in 2009.

"Sometimes you can't be sure if it's his costume or his dance moves that make you laugh, but nonetheless, Blue Demons fans are always happy to share the stands with him," said Jamie McNeal, a 2013 graduate in industrial and organizational psychology who has known Bobb for five years.

"Andre is such a dedicated fan because he really loves DePaul University as a whole. ... Andre is one of the most well-known students at DePaul," McNeal added.

Bobb always sits by himself, although he doesn't really stay still. He usually roams the student section, looking for "loose" bleacher steps that rattle loudly when he stomps on them. During a recent home game, Bobb said he accidentally started stomping near a pregnant woman.

"I walked up to the step near here and started stomping, and it scared the mess out of her," Bobb said. "I told her that I was really sorry, but that she was in the student section, so I was supposed to be loud. So she moved.

"I really did feel bad, but it felt like I would be doing the women's team a disservice by not being loud. I apologized, but I'm committed to the team first."

Bobb, who first came to DePaul in 2006 as an undergrad, is on pace to graduate in June and hopes to be employed in higher education retention or advocacy work.

But he doesn't plan to retire "Demon Warrior" any time in the near future if he remains in Chicago.

"If I'm 30, and I'm in the city, and I'm at a DePaul game, I'm dressed in character," Bobb said.