Comedian surprise-visited campus, shooting hoops with basketball, baseball players

As part of his “You’re My Best Friend” tour, Adam Sandler came to Omaha on Tuesday, Oct. 21, and performed live at the CHI Health Center.  

While he was in town, the comedian came by to shoot hoops with Creighton’s men’s basketball team and touch base with Creighton’s baseball team.   

Jimmy Burke, a College of Arts and Sciences senior and a pitcher on the baseball team, is a huge fan of Sandler.  

When the star of “Happy Gilmore” came in on the day of his performance, Burke couldn’t believe his eyes.   

“I see somebody in a Hawaiian shirt from the other side of the room. I did a double take – then I noticed that it was Mr. Adam Sandler. He gave me and all the other guys a high five. It was almost like a fever dream … he’s one of my favorite actors.”  

Sandler was friendly with the baseball team as he visited with them, joking around like the comedian he is.  

When he came up to Burke, Sandler knew right away that he was a pitcher — showing that there’s a reason why the comedian is so comfortable around college sports teams.   

In 2023, Sandler was spotted wearing a Creighton basketball jersey all the way in Los Angeles, according to a post on X by @Creightakes.  

He got that jersey when he was last in Omaha, when he spent the day before his show as part of the “I Missed You” tour shooting hoops with the men’s basketball team. With his recent return to Omaha and to Creighton, his visits are becoming a bit of a tradition.   

Burke’s favorite movie starring Sandler is “Happy Gilmore,” because it centers around golf, and Sandler’s style of comedy in that film is relatable to Burke.   

“He’s very energetic, and I am as well, you know, a very energetic person. Obviously, I like sports and golf, you know, and to me he happens to be in those movies, and they’re very entertaining.”   

Sandler’s comedy has value in its ability to be relatable, shown in the title of his current tour, “You’re My Best Friend.”  

But on this tour, the kind of relatability that he channeled might be a little foreign to the average Creighton student.  

Reviews online have described Sandler focusing on the melancholic comedy of getting older.  

Between jokes about generational differences between himself and his daughters, he includes a few songs to break up the routine. Joining him is SNL graduate Rob Schneider, who has also been in movies with Sandler like 2006’s “Benchwarmers” and 2022’s “Home Team.”   

Burke had no idea that Sandler was coming to Omaha that day, much less the workout room where he and the rest of the team were at the time.  

Because of that, he unfortunately was unable to make it to the show that night.   

“If I had the opportunity, I would have gone on Tuesday.”   

Luckily for Burke, this isn’t the first time that the comedian has come to Omaha, and given his history with both Omaha and Creighton, it won’t be the last.   

Adam Sandler was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor — one of the most prestigious awards a comedian can receive — at the Kennedy Center in 2023, the same year that he first visited Creighton.  

And while he can’t ever get another Mark Twain, Adam Sandler’s future may include another visit to the Bluejay nest.