Web Feature Posted March 14, 2014

The Falcons and the Hawks

Unexpected Ways SPU Alumni Showed Their Seahawks Spirit

By Holly Harris Wood | Photo courtesy of Maurice Labrecque ’99

View more Super Bowl photos from Maurice Labreque

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson hoists the Super Bowl trophy just minutes after the Seahawks won Super Bowl 48.

January may be a gloomy month in Seattle, but this year the whole city — Seattle Pacific University included — hardly noticed the drizzle. The Seattle Seahawks fought their way to the Super Bowl. And then, they won the Super Bowl in a landslide victory that brought locals together in a delirium of 12th-man joy.

Grocery stores sold out of running back Marshawn Lynch’s power snack, Skittles. Construction crews hung massive Seahawks flags on cranes across the downtown skyline. School children learned about earthquakes in a new light: Seattle fans actually cause them, when they cheer loudly enough.

SPU may not have a football team feeding star players to the NFL, but Falcon alumni caught the Seahawks spirit, too:

Char Beck ’08 filmed Making of a Champion, a short movie illuminating the Christian faith of several coaches and players, including quarterback Russell Wilson.

Melyssa Norris Stone ’09 directed her elementary music students in a Seahawks-themed “New York, New York” remake that landed them on the Today Show.

And photographer Maurice Labrecque ’99 traveled to the Bowl himself, snapping epic photos at the game that Emerald City dwellers will never forget.

And do you want to know what Mark Demaray ’00 fed the hungry 12th Man at his popular home-game tailgaters? In the upcoming March issue of SPU’s e-newsletter Connections Alumni News, Mark provides you with a peek behind the scenes at Hawk Alley. Plus his famous chowder recipe revealed! (Don't get Connections? Sign up here.)