First-year student Richie Basehart is Puget Sound’s newest Big Man on Campus (BMOC).
“I have all the friends I could ever want,” Basehart said. He added, mock-blushing, “and all the ladies too.”
“I’ve never been this popular,” he continued.
Basehart described himself as friendly, charming, attractive and funny.
“I already won the genetic lottery physically, but it’s my personality that really attracts people,” he said.
“I always tell people, ‘If you had my personality and your looks, it’d be a slam dunk!’ And that’s a compliment!”
Basehart owns a dependable, midsize sedan with under 100,000 miles on the odometer.
“He’s the only one on our floor who has a car,” Anthony Quinn, a fellow first year and Basehart’s best friend, said.
At the beginning of the Fall 2014 semester, Quinn and Basehart were not very good friends, partially due to a Cards Against Humanity incident that neither party cared to elaborate on.
But now, Basehart feels that Quinn is almost too dedicated to their best-friendship.
“[Quinn]’s always like ‘Rich, let’s go to see Nightcrawler!’ and ‘Rich, can you drive me to the airport?’ I’m like ‘Uh, thirsty much?’” Basehart said.
The “ladies,” as Basehart would call them, also seem to be interested in spending more time with him.
“This one girl Julia asked me to drive her to the Tacoma Mall one day and I was like ‘Oh, I know what this is about,’” Basehart said, winking.
First year Julia Masina said, “Oh yeah. I remember that. I needed some new pants from Forever 21. I hate that the closest Urban Outfitters is in Seattle.”
When asked what she found particularly charming and irresistible about Basehart, Masina responded, “Do you think he would drive to Seattle? Or is that too far?”
“It’s gotten to the point where my weekends are too full,” Basehart said.
“I’m driving Julia to Seattle on Friday, then going with Tony to see Nightcrawler again on Friday night and some friends invited me on a trip to Portland Saturday! I’m a nice guy and I just don’t know how to say no! They were like, ‘Richie, we can’t go to Portland without you.’”
“Yeah, we invited Richie to Portland,” first year Anna Unger said. “None of us have cars. We can’t go to Portland without him.”
Basehart thinks that the key to his social success may be his great taste in music and a plethora of funny anecdotes to keep potential friends laughing and entertained.
“This one time…Oh god,” he said, laughing mid-sentence. “This one time, I was with my friend from high school, Jeff, and we went to the beach and he was like ‘Rich, I’m drowning!’ and I was like ‘I don’t know what you want me to do about that, bud!’ and then a lifeguard came and he didn’t drown.”
The above anecdote is just one of the many examples of Basehart’s infectious sense of humor.
“I got loads more,” he said. “Do you want more? I have this one about my senior prom-ohmygod, you have to hear th—”
When asked if he has any other theories as to why he is so popular in college, Basehart shrugged.
“I don’t know, man,” he said, smiling. “I can’t explain it.”
