Abbey Kim photos
Albertus Prez Marc Camille (right), with Barbara Holden, Sandra McKinnie, Tonya Ricks, and Grant Ellis's face.
“His mother signed him up for the show!”
The Albertus Magnus College men’s basketball team, school president, basketball coach, and nearly 150 others gathered Monday night, clutching roses and blown up pictures of their favorite alum — now the star of the 29th season of a reality TV dating show.
Suddenly, there he was, on the Zoom screen and on their TVs: The Bachelor himself!
Albertus Magnus students, faculty, and alumni came together in the school’s Behan Community Room at 333 Huntington Ave. to watch their alumnus, Grant Ellis, make his debut as ABC’s newest Bachelor. The New Jersey native graduated from the local Catholic college in 2017.
Ellis joined the reality-show watch party for an electrifying minute-and-a-half via Zoom — the crowd cheered; women waved their roses; and his sparkling smile beamed back at him from dozens of blown up shots of his own face placed around the room.
“I got a quick minute before I go back to my afterparty,” Ellis said, “but I wanted to say that Albertus is one of the best schools. I hope you guys enjoy the journey and really, really, really take care of the college. That’s my alma mater, okay?”
The crowd cheered. Ellis lingered on the Zoom as alumni rubbed together blue and white pom poms and snapped selfies. Albertus Magnus President Marc Camille stood front and center with a beaming smile, a red rose, and a peace sign throughout the interaction.
It was “a night of great excitement, great pride,” Camille said. He hopes that The Bachelor can help spread awareness of the college, which is approaching its 100 year anniversary.
Ellis transferred to Albertus Magnus at the beginning of the spring semester of his junior year, joining the basketball team as a guard. Head Men’s Basketball Coach Mitch Oliver recounted a game where Ellis scored three foul shots in the last second of the game and brought his team to victory by just one point. His teammate Ryan Pittman added that Ellis had the “Steph Curry effect” — he did not have to watch where the ball went after he shot it; he knew it was going in.
The entire Albertus men’s basketball team came to show their support for their alumnus. For many, it was their first time watching The Bachelor. They hope Ellis will model what it means to be an Albertus Magnus athlete during this season: “development not only on the court but off the court too,” according to guard and freshman Malcolm Duncanson.
Even after the Zoom ended, the crowd remained eager to participate in the show. They watched as the women vying for a relationship met Ellis on screen, with each trying to invent her own “meet cute.” When they watched one contestant on the show give Ellis a blown up poster board of his head, the room erupted into cheers and everyone proudly raised their own sign. When another brought an unknown animal, a spirited debate broke out in the front of the room about its species: llama or alpaca?
At a table toward the front of the room, Albertus Magnus alumna Sandra McKinnie ’17 sat with two of her childhood friends and her mother. This event, McKinnie said, was emblematic of the Albertus Magnus community: “We support each other. We just love each other to the finish line.”
McKinnie’s table was vocal during the show, giving live commentary, disapproving looks, and enthusiastic cheers when appropriate. “His mother signed him up for the show,” McKinnie repeated appreciatively at one point to the table.
After the first on-screen kiss, McKinnie’s table cheered and applauded. A neighboring table of women triumphantly waved their roses in the air .
McKinnie and her table were sure the first kiss would get the first impression rose, which bachelors give to indicate a special connection who is guaranteed safety and a date before the next elimination. “The way he looked at her, you can see there’s some connection,” McKinnie said. “I’m putting my call on her.”
Minutes later, Ellis kissed another girl. McKinnie threw up her hands: “I give up! Total confusion!” Her table laughed appreciatively.
Ellis ended up kissing seven girls. “He’s having a party!” Barbara Holden, McKinnie’s mother, said. Each kiss prompted an “ooh” or a cheer, depending on the standing of that particular contestant in the women’s eyes.
The contestant the crowd has affectionately nicknamed “llama girl” got the first impression rose — though she was notably not Ellis’s first kiss. Afterward, during the rose ceremony, in which the contestants who will be kept on the show got the flower from Ellis, McKinnie’s table clapped and whooped for their favorites.
But some of the group might be playing a longer game. Tonya Ricks, a lifelong friend of McKinnie, said she wanted to set her 37-year-old daughter up with Ellis if the Bachelor stint doesn’t work out. “Anything can happen!” she said. The group plans to continue watching next week.
Ellis zooms in before quickly returning to his afterparty.
More Albertus students, athletes, faculty cheer on their Bachelor.
