The Victory Bell: The Podcast

The latest episode of TVB: The Podcast dives into the process that led to the recent oral history series on Valparaiso’s March to Madison Square Garden. TVB host Paul Oren explains how the project came to be and tells a few behind-the-scenes reporting stories along the way. Thank you to all who read the series and a special thanks to all who contributed their memories and stories to the project. A...

Starting just outside Gurnee and ending right before Hwy. 49, The Victory Bell: The Podcast brings you on a ride home from Valparaiso’s oh-so-close loss to Marquette on Tuesday night in Milwaukee. TVB host Paul Oren breaks down Valpo’s near miss against the Golden Eagles in the first 30 minutes of the episode and then discusses Valparaiso’s recent Presidential hire in the back half of the pod. Thi...

We’re on the eve of the start of the 2025-26 college basketball season and that means The Victory Bell: The Podcast is back for the annual Over/Under Episode. TVB founder Paul Oren is joined by Todd Ickow, the Voice of Valparaiso Athletics, to discuss the upcoming Valparaiso men’s basketball season through a series of statistical categories related to the retooled roster. Will JT Pettigrew match C...

The ball has been kicked and served in several different ways as the 2025-26 athletic campaign is officially underway at Valparaiso University. Todd Ickow joins The Victory Bell founder Paul Oren to discuss the start of the year for Valpo’s volleyball, soccer and football programs. Ickow and Oren discuss several of Valparaiso’s new stars, including a pair of freshmen sensations on the soccer team....

Valparaiso women’s basketball coach Courtney Boyd sits down with The Victory Bell: The Podcast to discuss her first summer on campus. Boyd walks through how she constructed the 2025-26 roster and discusses her philosophy heading into her first year leading the Beacons. Paul Oren also previews some upcoming coverage and reflects on a weekend spent in Indianapolis surrounding the WNBA All-Star Game...

Who is on the Mount Rushmore of Valparaiso athletes in the 21st century? Paul Oren and Todd Ickow discuss that very question as The Victory Bell looks back on the first quarter of the 21st century. Alec Peters is a pretty easy pick for the best men’s basketball player this century, but what about Jeanette Gray or Dani Franklin for women’s basketball? Kyle Gaedele or Kyle Schmack for baseball? Angi...

The 2024-25 campaign was one of change for the Valparaiso athletic department. A new permanent athletic director was installed at the start of the year while a trio of new coaches joined the Valpo family throughout the course of the year. There were also a ton of talented newcomers to join Valpo’s rosters as well as a litany of SportsCenter Top 10 plays. Paul Oren and Todd Ickow take listeners on...

Darius DeAveiro walked across the court at the Athletics-Recreation Center for the final time as a student during Valparaiso’s commencement ceremony on Saturday. On Sunday, DeAveiro sat down with The Victory Bell to reflect on his Valparaiso journey, including a detailed explanation of what happened when he suffered a knee injury in the final minutes of Valpo’s Arch Madness loss to Bradley in Marc...

The story changed for Valparaiso after 72 hours in St. Louis. Roger Powell Jr. has spent the last two years telling Valpo fans that the Beacons were going to tell a beautiful story that would culminate with cutting down nets. A new chapter was added at Arch Madness this weekend after victories over UIC and Northern Iowa as well as a gutting defeat at the hands of March nemesis Bradley. The Victory...

The Victory Bell: The Podcast returns with an “emergency pod” after Valparaiso’s 80-62 loss in Terre Haute on Wednesday night. The game featured a dominant first 10 minutes from Cooper Schwieger, a record-setting output from All Wright, and maybe the most disappointing collective performance of the season as Valpo dropped its eighth straight game. After driving home in silence for about an hour on...

It’s Christmas morning at The Victory Bell as the annual Valparaiso men’s basketball Over/Under podcast is here! TVB founder Paul Oren is joined by The Voice of Valparaiso Athletics, Todd Ickow, to discuss a series of metrics surrounding the upcoming men’s basketball season. How many assists will Darius DeAveiro have this season? Will Cooper Schwieger take a big jump in his sophomore season? How m...

Valparaiso’s 2023-24 season started with a trip to the NCAA tournament and ended with a national championship. If only everything in the middle had been so fruitful. The Voice of Valparaiso Athletics, Todd Ickow, joins the pod to discuss the previous 10 months with The Victory Bell editor Paul Oren. The pair attempt to navigate what went right and what went wrong for Valparaiso during the 2023-24...

The Valparaiso women’s soccer team is heading to South Bend to take on Notre Dame in the 2023 NCAA tournament. The latest episode of The Victory Bell: The Podcast features interviews with a host of the Valpo women’s soccer players as well as longtime coach John Marovich and director of athletics Charles Small. Topics include potential opponents before the bracket was revealed and a look at the bes...

The highly-anticipated 2023-24 Valparaiso Men’s Basketball Over/Under Episode is now live! In what might have been the toughest year to set the lines, The Victory Bell founder Paul Oren puts down the numbers and The Voice of Valparaiso Athletics, Todd Ickow, makes the picks. Feel free to make your own picks at home or tell Paul how absolutely terrible he was at setting the lines. As always, The Vi...

According to Field of Dreams, Iowa is heaven. According to The Victory Bell, Iowa is where perfectly good cars go to die. The Victory Bell: The Podcast is back with another episode as host Paul Oren explains the travel woes that put a bow around a miserable weekend for Valparaiso athletics. Host: Paul Oren For more coverage of Valparaiso athletics, visit TheVictoryBell.com This is a public episode...

Homecoming is in the books and while the fall sport seasons are in full bloom, it’s tempting to look toward the future. Valparaiso men’s basketball coach Roger Powell joins the pod on the first day of practice to talk about the official start of the 2023-24 season. Powell talks about his first few months on the job and what he likes about his roster for the upcoming season. Host: Paul Oren Guest:...

It’s Homecoming Week at Valparaiso University! The Victory Bell: The Podcast is celebrating by taking a look back in time to one of the greatest athletic years in Valparaiso history. The football and volleyball teams will be celebrating a pair of 20-year anniversaries this weekend. Couple the Pioneer Football League title and a NCAA tournament appearance for the volleyball team with a pair of trip...

We’re back! I’m thrilled to launch another year of podcasts at The Victory Bell and the first episode of the 2023-24 athletic season is loaded. Former Valparaiso football player and new men’s basketball walk-on Anthony Sciarroni joins the pod. Then we’ve got new Valpo men’s basketball assistant coach Matt Gordon on the pod to analyze the 2023-24 nonconference slate. In addition to the guests, I’ll...

The 2022-23 season has come to an end for Valparaiso athletics. What better way to look back on the last 10 months of competition than to bring in the Voice of Valparaiso Athletics, Todd Ickow? Ickow and Paul Oren share some stories from a variety of Valparaiso sports before turning their attention to the men’s basketball program. Ickow talks about the future of Valpo basketball and the pair go th...

Valparaiso men’s basketball star Ben Krikke joins The Victory Bell: The Podcast to look back on his decorated career with the Beacons. Krikke shares some of his favorite memories of his four years at Valpo before discussing his decision to transfer, what he was looking for in a new program and the impact of NIL on college athletics. Host: Paul Oren Guest: Ben Krikke For more coverage of Valparaiso...

The latest episode of The Victory Bell: The Podcast involves a little cross-promotion as Olivia Brown and Olivia Sims, two members of the Valparaiso women’s basketball team, join the show to discuss their own podcast, Liv Off Court . Brown and Sims share some of their experiences as student-athletes who balance live on and off the court. In addition to featuring Liv Off Court, TVB host Paul Oren d...

Longtime Valparaiso coach Luke Gore joined The Victory Bell: The Podcast to look back on the last 21 years as a member of the men’s basketball program. Gore shares some of his favorite memories while talking through the emotions of the last month. Gore ends the podcast by announcing where he’s headed next. A reminder that TVB: The Podcast is free to all listeners. For full access to all of the sto...

Roger Powell is coming back to Valparaiso. In the latest episode of The Victory Bell: The Podcast, host Paul Oren goes inside the reporting of Powell’s hiring as the new Valparaiso men’s basketball coach and shares the agony of getting beat on the story by a college football reporter. TVB: The Podcast is free to all listeners. There will be plenty of stories coming in the days to come and this is...

Florida Atlantic play-by-play announcer and Valparaiso graduate Ken LaVicka (‘06) joins The Victory Bell: The Podcast to discuss FAU’s dream run to the Final Four. LaVicka shares stories of cutting his broadcast teeth at WVUR and how those experiences helped prepare him for when his broadcast dropped with 18.6 seconds left in last weekend’s Elite Eight game against Kansas State. LaVicka and FAU is...

March 13, 1998. If you’re a Valparaiso fan of a certain age, you remember exactly where you were the moment Bryce Drew hit “The Shot.” This year marks 25 years since that magical moment and The Victory Bell: The Podcast is celebrating by sharing a throwback episode of Union Street Hoops. In 2018, Union Street Hoops host Paul Oren was joined by former Northwest Indiana Times reporters Sean Hayden a...