{"id":2459,"date":"2016-05-31T13:51:45","date_gmt":"2016-05-31T13:51:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/?p=2459"},"modified":"2023-05-24T17:56:47","modified_gmt":"2023-05-24T17:56:47","slug":"zureks-treasured-possession","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/2016\/05\/31\/zureks-treasured-possession\/","title":{"rendered":"Zurek’s Treasured Possession"},"content":{"rendered":"

Richard Paige<\/em> — Whether it\u2019s a violation of the Gentleman\u2019s Rule is debatable. Beyond any reasonable doubt, however, it was an awesome prank.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did. I stole his robe,\u201d says co-conspirator Connor Karns \u201916 proudly.<\/p>\n

Discover what was stolen \u2013 a Harry Potter Quidditch robe \u2013 and from whom \u2013 All-American football player Mason Zurek \u2013 and you\u2019ll learn a little about brotherhood on this campus, and the quality guy that Zurek is.<\/p>\n

\"Mason<\/a>
Mason Zurek (left) shares a laugh with Connor Karns in an Intro to Acting class.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Click here for a video feature on Mason Zurek ’16<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Zurek likes to wear a bathrobe around the Sigma Chi house when he feels like lounging. He\u2019s not shy about it. Most times, he doesn\u2019t even tie it up. It\u2019s become so much a part of who he is, that Zurek sometimes strolls campus in it, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe likes to wear it,\u201d says pledge brother Tyler Trepton \u201916. \u201cIt\u2019s his thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zurek has always had a robe while on campus. His first one was blue \u2013 \u201csome kinda suede,\u201d Trepton says \u2013 but his mom got him a new one, upgrading to the Potter model, last Christmas. Zurek loves Harry Potter. He re-reads the books in the series every summer and even dropped $300 on souvenirs at Harry Potter World last year. Add that to the fact that his mom gave it to him and it went from robe to a treasured possession.<\/p>\n

One random Saturday night in the doldrums prior to Spring Break, the robe ended up in Karns\u2019 possession and a plan was hatched to keep it for a few days to see what happened.<\/p>\n

Zurek lost his cool. The football star who rushed for more than 2,000 yards last season, the rhetoric major who has presented at professional conferences, the future law school student completely melted down. Panicked e-mails, frantic house searches, guilt trips, pleas at chapter meetings. Nothing Zurek did or said brought that robe back. Days passed and he was getting more desperate. He even threatened to cancel his Spring Break trip. Zurek needed a Time-Turner!<\/p>\n

\u201cI spent three or four days angrily searching everyone\u2019s rooms \u2013 every nook and cranny I could \u2013 and I still couldn\u2019t find it,\u201d Zurek says. \u201cI could not control myself. The e-mails got increasingly angry as the week went on and the searches got more desperate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Karns is succinct: \u201cIt got ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n

The following Friday at lunch Karns slipped into the room next to the Sigma Chi cafeteria and blasted the Harry Potter theme over the speakers, put on the robe, flipped up the hood, and prepared<\/p>\n

\"Zurek<\/a>
Zurek prepares for an in-class presentation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

to enter the lunchtime din.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone goes silent, and I\u2019m wondering what\u2019s going on,\u201d Zurek says. \u201cThe sliding doors open and Connor is standing there wearing my robe. I freak out, tackle him and take it back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was full of joy,\u201d Karns says, \u201cnot even upset, just so happy that he had his robe back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zurek is likable. He\u2019s hard working. He\u2019s tough. He\u2019s also lighthearted and approachable. Someone easy to joke around with. Someone his pledge brothers know all too well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are 16 of us who know everything about each other \u2013 hometowns, full names, families, everything \u2013 we\u2019re so close,\u201d Karns says. \u201cWhen he found out it was us, he understood the joke. We\u2019re brothers, and it was only a little joking between brothers.<\/p>\n

\u201cFortunately, he\u2019s never pulled off anything that extreme on us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Richard Paige — Whether it\u2019s a violation of the Gentleman\u2019s Rule is debatable. Beyond any reasonable doubt, however, it was an awesome prank. \u201cI did. I stole his robe,\u201d says co-conspirator Connor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":2467,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-works-in-progress","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"w_featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/05\/img_3328-1024x683.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2459"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2474,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459\/revisions\/2474"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}