The air was hot and thick as over 70 people, some sweating, crammed the Holmes Student Center basement.

But this was also the last chance for Huskie fans to buy a student ticket for the NIU football team’s sold out season opener.

At 4 p.m. the Campus Activities Board began to sell 123 tickets. Law student Nick Stavros and junior marketing major Josh Zuza were the first two students in line. The pair began to form the line at 2:15 p.m.

“I left my class early,” Zuza said. “I grabbed the syllabus and left.”

Stavros and Zuza were without tickets because neither thought the game would sell out.

“I didn’t realize it would sell out,” Stavros said. “But it’s going to be awesome,” he said of the crowd size.

Although Stavros and Zuza were first in line, other students had been checking the box office though out the entire day.

James Madai, a senior Spanish major with an emphasis in translation and business, had been checking out the area since 9:15 on Tuesday morning. The senior was prepared to skip his second day of class to get a ticket to the Solider Field showdown.

“I came here at 9:15, but no one was here. So I guessed I would go pick up my syllabus,” Madai said. “I kept checking the line after each class.”

Many NIU students were relieved they had one more chance to buy tickets at the student price of $27.50. Fifth-year senior Travis Matthews, a business administration and economics major, had looked around online for a ticket, but found them too pricey.

“Dude, I went on e-Bay and all those auction sites. I wasn’t going to spend $350 for two tickets,” Matthews said. “My procrastination is not worth that much.”

CAB president Colleen Murphy said that they had expected the crowd and were prepared. NIU police were on scene, as HSC regulation required it.

“We wanted to make sure friends weren’t going to let friends cut in line,” Murphy said. “Luckily it’s been orderly.”

Ticket sales started slow. After being opened for 25 minutes, 17 of the 80 people that had or were in line had been served.

Things began to speed up though, as another nine customers were able to purchase tickets in the next five minutes.

By the time the clock hit 5:20 the fury was over. Tickets were gone; the line too. However, Murphy said that CAB would hold onto two tickets, which they will raffle off sometime this week.

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