CHICAGO—Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis won’t leave the building.

There was more to the historical atmosphere of the International Amphitheatre Saturday afternoon, where Loyola defeated NIU 100-94, than just the site of the 1968 Democratic Convention.

It was legendary.

Whether the original intentions were to stir up memories of the “King of rock n‘ roll” or not, a group of Loyola students continued their ritual of bringing a black velvet painting of Elvis to the Ramblers’ home games.

The group, known as the Dungeon Club, has blessed the Ramblers with a 4-0 ledger since the discovery of the artwork at a flea market weeks ago. To push matters even further, the club even buys “Elvis” a ticket for admission.

Although Jailhouse Rock was not to be heard from the Amphitheatre organist, NIU coach Jim Rosborough said he had heard rumors of the deceased Presley joining the 2,171 in attendance.

“Somebody said he (Elvis) was hiding out in the balcony,” said Rosborough, who admitted to being a collector of more than 20 Elvis albums himself.

Unlike Loyola, NIU didn’t have a gimmick of their own that would allow the Huskies to escape more than a three-point edge over the Ramblers in the second half.

Despite efforts from team-high scorer Stacy Arrington (25 points) and double-double contributions from Andrew Wells (21 points, 13 rebounds) and Antwon Harmon (18 points, 10 rebounds), the Huskies were unable to halt a run-and-gun Rambler offense. Sophomore forward Keith Gailes led Loyola with 40 points.

“We got after Gailes pretty good,” Rosborough said, “but what we needed was a quick 7-foot-6 kid like Manute Bol with (Moses) Malone’s body.”

Defending NIU’s Donnell Thomas (20 points, 8 rebounds) didn’t come as a choreless task to the Ramblers either.

“Their good posting player, number 44 (Thomas), is a bitch to guard,” Loyola coach Gene Sullivan said, “and Arrington is a very good penetrator and a very explosive offensive player.”

NIU recovered from a 53-51 halftime deficit in the opening minutes with a rebound shot by Harmon. After trading baskets for the first 12 minutes of the second period, NIU grabbed its first lead of the half with a 3-point bucket by Donald Whiteside (10 points) to give the Huskies an 80-79 edge.

A Harmon short jumper from the paint, followed by a Whiteside scoop-reverse layup, gave NIU its largest lead of the second half at 84-81 with 6:45 left to play.

It was then that the 83-percent free-throw shooting of the Ramblers took its toll on the Huskies, who sank just 51 percent from the charity stripe.

“We just gave up too many points and we didn’t play very good defense,” Arrington said.