The Underground: From “kick it” spot to deserted space
By Naudia Loftis
After a long day of classes and work, students at John Carroll University walk through the student center and head straight to the cafeteria. As they travel past the fast-food restaurant known as the Inn Between, the Cubby snack bar and the lounge area known as the Underground with its small stage and piano, most continue with conversations with no acknowledgment of the space before them. Most evenings, the Underground is silent and empty, awaiting the next morning when the line for the cafe ventures into its space once again.
Flash back to the 1970s and early ’80s, when the ground floor of the student center was a fun and relaxing place for students to wind down. Beer and munchies filled the air, along with music blaring from the live band. In those days this place wasn’t called the Underground—it was the Rathskeller, better known as the Rat Bar.
The Rat Bar opened in the ’70s at Carroll and was known as the “kick it” spot for students on campus. With the legal drinking age at 18 and the Student Union in charge of the bar, the space was filled with more than 100 people a night, according to recollections from staff and alumni and a 2016 story in JCU Alumni Magazine.
The student-led bar was advertised back then as a “safe harbor” for JCU students. It opened in 1969 with room for about 200 people, a stage and a bar. Alumni classes from the ’70s and ’80s often share memories of The Rathskeller in the alumni magazine and during reunion weekend.
Also during this time, in place of the university bookstore was a video game room that added to the flair of the bar. The original bookstore stood where the Inn Between stands now.
The bar helped bring commuter students and on-campus students together to blow off steam after a long day of classes. Originally it was only open on Fridays and Saturdays, but its popularity drove it to be open daily. The bar not only brought Carroll students in but also outsiders as well.
Clarissa Kimbrough is a worker at the Inn Between and has been serving the Carroll community for over 40 years. She recalls the transitions the campus has gone through and has witnessed it happening right in front of her. Kimbrough starting working at the university in 1968, a year before the Rathskeller opened. She began working at the snack bar, now the Inn Between, as temporary staff, but ended up staying.
“There used to be a bar called the Rat Bar right there,” Kimbrough said, pointing towards the Cubby and the Underground. “ It was a place for students to relax.”
She recalled students enjoying the game room as a source of relaxation as well, and a Pizza Hut where the eating area for the Inn Between stands now.
The Rat Bar was common ground for everyone. Thursday was the night for live bands to perform, and Sunday was for football games. Merchandise with the bar’s logo was sold in the bookstore.
Students were also paid to work in the bar as bartenders, waiters and maintenance people. Sadly, as the drinking age rose, the bar died down, since no one under 21 was allowed to drink.
By the 1990s, the Rathskeller was a thing of the past. Soon a new space called the Wolf-n-Pot brought in a new crowd of people, as did the Inn Between.
“Mainly teachers and adults were in there,” Kimbrough recalled about the Wolf-n-Pot, after the drinking age had changed. “The students would use it as a place to do homework or watch TV, but it was also used as a hangout space.”
The Wolf-n-Pot lasted until the early 2000s, and also died out like the Rat Bar. Its fate was similar to that of the the Underground today, Kimbrough said.
“I don’t see much of a difference. Students still hang out in there,” she stated. Yet, current students who attend the university have different opinions about the space.
Khalil Scott-Johnson, a sophomore, occasionally sits in the Underground to do homework or just enjoy a quiet place. “Nobody really comes through here, so it’s a good place to work,” Scott-Johnson said.
The area is usually only full when the line from the cafeteria leads out through the space back near the entrance to the Cubby.
“The room is dope, though, with the stage and seats. It’s a good place for events,” Scott-Johnson continued. “It’s just hard to draw the students here.”
He also said that it’s sometimes a forgotten space when it comes to hosting events. “I can count the number of events I’ve been to in here since I started going to JCU.”
Times have definitely changed, so it’s very unlikely that another bar will open up in that space. But the Underground still holds a certain vibe that may be left over from the Rat Bar.
Two years ago, the Class of 1986 hosted an event called “The Night the Rat Bar Died” during their Reunion Weekend, according to the JCU Alumni Magazine. They shared laughs and drinks in the Underground, the place where the Rat Bar was once.
“The Rathskeller was more than just a bar; it was a complex that included a 40-seat coffee house and a game room,” said John Walsh, the writer of the article.
“Every time I hear the word ‘Rathskeller’ it brings a smile to my face,” says Tim Cavanagh ’84, who was at the event.
The Underground is occasionally reserved for events held by campus organizations such as poetry slams, movie nights, open mic nights and group meetings. But the excitement the space held in previous years is relieved only through alumni stories and photos.
