On a cold Saturday afternoon in January, several hundred basketball fans walked through the doorways of Geiseman Gymnasium as CUC held its inaugural “Pack the Stands” event. The doubleheader on Jan. 17 had two goals: to break the record for most people at a CUC basketball game and to raise money for Immanuel Christian Academy, a private school in nearby Hillside.
While the school did not manage to break the standing record of 726 attendees during the doubleheader against Lakeland University, the event did pull in $2,000 to fund a new playground for the K-8 school.
The event was the brainchild of senior Jacob Garrison, who came up with the idea to replace the Concordia Invitational Tournament.
The CIT was an annual tournament between CUC, Concordia Wisconsin, Concordia Ann Arbor, and Concordia Nebraska that had been held since 1953. The tournament was put on hiatus after the 2025 event, when CUAA closed their athletics programs and CUW pulled out of all future CIT events. Prior to going on hiatus, CIT was scheduled to be held at CUC in 2026.
“We don’t have a big school event that’s happening,” said Garrison. “I thought, ‘Let’s have an event we can make feel like the CIT.’ It’s a great environment for students.”
Garrison said planning for the event began in October. Organizers chose Jan. 17 because CUC men’s and women’s basketball were scheduled to play and in-conference doubleheader. In addition, there were no other sports scheduled that day, and the date fell around the time that the CIT would have been held.
Once the date was picked, it became a process of deciding what other festivities the school would host alongside the event.
“A lot of it was working with the Big Six, SGA, and Spiritual Life,” said Garrison. “I really wanted to focus on Spiritual Life, as church and athletics are the two biggest parts of the university, so we should be collaborating together.”
ICA was chosen by Joel Watts, a graduate assistant for CUC vice president for strategic operations Jamie Kowalczyk. Watts said he learned about the school from Kowalczyk.
“Around winter break was when we decided to have the event be focused on raising money for ICA,” said Watts. “That’s when we visited the school and spent time with the students and Principal Carnita Nash.”
An early plan involved having CUC student volunteers to repair the playground set, Garrison said, but university risk management told them not to touch it. As a result, Garrison instead shifted gears towards helping the school get funding for a new playground.
“We decided to raise money to raise awareness and support for ICA,” said Garrison. “We had donations and QR codes for donations at the games, and all money from the giving minute (where CUC student workers have 60 seconds to go into the stands to collect donations from crowd members) went towards ICA. The Northern Illinois District of the Missouri Synod also said that they would match all donations up to $1,000.”
As planning for the event went on, it was decided that a major part of it would be bringing ICA students to Concordia. Junior Rachel Livesay, the co-coordinator of Concordia Youth Ministry, helped to facilitate the day of the event.
“Spiritual Life was there to help with the Christian side of things,” said Livesay. “It was huge to show the kids that God loves them outside school and church, and that they can use their talents and abilities to further the kingdom of God.”
The original plan was for CUC students to partake in a game of layup tic tac toe at halftime for the women’s game and then for ICA students to play a scrimmage during halftime of the men’s game. Technical difficulties earlier in the women’s halftime show meant the tic tac toe game was moved to the men’s halftime, extending halftime by a few minutes.
By the end of the double-header, which saw the women’s team dominate Lakeland 83-66 and the men’s team pull off a close 70-67 win, CUC had raised $1,000 for ICA. Combined with the matching from the LCMS, that meant the school raised $2,000 to start building a new playground for ICA.
Nash said over email that, including the money raised from the “Pack the Stands” event, ICA has so far raised over $5,000 for a new playground, out of an estimated total cost of $18,000. Nash said that the $2,000 raised from CUC is an important contribution towards ICA’s overall goal.
Watts said that while there isn’t an exact timetable for when ground would be broken, he has a meeting scheduled with Kowalczyk soon to discuss the next steps.
The event did fall short of breaking the all-time attendance record of 726, which was set when CUC hosted Edgewood University for a men’s conference tournament game on February 23, 2022. The women’s game saw a crowd of 378 fans, while the men’s game had 550.
Even though the record wasn’t broken, Watts was still happy with the way the event turned out.
“Considering it was the first time holding it, I am very pleased,” said Watts. “We are setting the foundation for something that can grow for years to come.”
Ultimately, the organizers were happy about the opportunity to raise money for ICA and show the students CUC.
Garrison has a field day for local middle schoolers planned for March 21, where the students will be able to play with CUC athletes and hang out with their friends. The ICA basketball team will also be visiting CUC again on Feb. 11, when the Concordia women’s team takes on Edgewood University.
“I wanted to leave behind something that was bigger than myself,” said Garrison. “Helping each other out in the community is what I strive for, and we were able to build a playground that kids can use. It’s bigger than what any one person can do.”
