Have you ever seen a man wearing a red suit in the front row of the student section at almost every St. John’s Basketball game?
Meet Billy Rabold, affectionately known as the “Red Suit Guy,” a St. John’s alumnus and prominent figure in the Red Storm community for the past eight years. Dressed in his signature red suit, he’s been at practically every home game to cheer on the Red Storm
He graduated from St. John’s in 2017 with his degree in education and is currently a teacher and athletic director for Mary Louis Academy. Since his first game at St. John’s, Rabold has been in the student section cheering on the Johnnies, win or lose.
In 2016, Rabold and his best friend, Dylan Powers were tired of seeing a lack of life in the SJU student section. They came up with an idea that became a growing venture for Rabold.
“We said, ‘What if we just were to go and buy suits like a matching outfit,” and we did it kind of as a joke,” Rabold said in a sit-down interview with The Torch. “It took off the first night that we did it, it was incredible.”
Since then, Rabold has attended every game in his suit and prides himself on not missing any home games.
After the pandemic let fans come back to games in person, the University athletic department asked Rabold to be the season ticket holder of the game in the 2021-2022 season against Georgetown. This was the first time he worked with athletics as Red Suit Guy and is one of his favorite memories to date.
“It was the first time after COVID that they had done it here at the Garden,” he said.
It was the first time Rabold’s family came to a game and saw how big he is in the St. John’s basketball community.
“It was really funny that after the game, people were taking pictures with me and my mom said, ‘Oh, my goodness, Billy actually has fans.’”
Rabold has continued to grow as a face of the program alongside players and coaches. Win or lose, he always puts on a happy face and supports the Red Storm. He’s even created his own “Red Suit Guy” merchandise and was featured in the 2023 Big East Tournament promotional content.
One of Rabold’s favorite things about being in his red suit every game is going to games and people coming up to him.
“When I’m taking the train, people stop me. When I’m at [Madison Square] Garden, when I’m at Carnesecca [Arena], people stop me,” Rabold said.”It’s become so much more than I thought it could become.”
Rabold has no plans on hanging up his red suit anytime soon.
“I’m going to plan on wearing this red suit forever,” he told The Torch. “I’ve joked that if I ever were to retire it, I would like it to be hung up somewhere, but I truly love it too much to not keep doing it.”
Look out for “Red Suit Guy” today as the Johnnies take on No. 15 Creighton for Johnnies Day at Madison Square Garden.
