A Mega-PC Basketball Fan Can Prove His Love

A Mega-PC Basketball Fan Can Prove His Love

East Providence native Charlie O’Donnell is making the case that he is Providence College basketball’s biggest fan.

Earlier this month, O’Donnell got a large tattoo of the PC mascot — the Friar — on his arm, but it marks just the latest in his ties to the program over the years. 

“I wanted something that’s not going to change,” laughed O’Donnell of getting inked, in an interview with GoLocal. 

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For O’Donnell, it was a confluence of events that led him to meet and forge friendships with a number of PC players during his college days, who he and his family even hosted over the holidays. 

“I’m very optimistic about the future,” said O’Donnell, of the Friars’ upcoming season. 

 

From Olds — to Riding in MarShon Brooks' Limo

“I graduated from East Providence [High School], and then I went to RIC for a year, where I met everybody that I could, and I ended up living with some basketball players on the RIC team,” said O’Donnell. “I lived with them for three years, and one of my roommates bartended at Olds on Douglas Avenue.”

“I’d go in there, and there’d be some basketball players from PC in there. They ran in the same circles, and they’d come over, and me and MarShon ended up hitting it off,” said O’Donnell, referring to former PC standout MarShon Brooks. 

A close friendship developed, and O’Donnell invited Brooks and former PC player Russ Permenter over to his family’s house one Thanksgiving when they were at PC. 

It didn’t stop there 

“I went to the [NBA] draft with [Brooks], his mom, his grandma. We were all in the limo,” said O’Donnell. 

And O’Donnell counts more PC players in his friends’ circle. 

O'Donnell, who said he started watching in the "Croshere/Shamgod years," counts among his friends circle "MarShon, "Greedy' Peterson, Cince Council, Kyle Wright, Geoff McDermott and Brian Mckenzie."

It was someone outside the PC world, however, who convinced him to get the tattoo. 

 

Finding the Perfect Opportunity 

“My girlfriend is a tattoo artist. She’s been licensed for a year and a half now,” said O’Donnell of Shannon Young, who works at Ruthless Ink in Johnston. 

“She’s like you got to get a tattoo, you got to get a tattoo — I’ve already got the anchor with the 401 on it,” said O’Donnell, of his other tattoo that shows his love for the state. 

“The first session probably took about three hours, then she touched it up a few days later,” said O’Donnell.

When asked if he thought anyone had a bigger Friar tattoo, O’Donnell laughed and said, “I have no idea.”

But if anyone wants one, he says — they can go see Young at Ruthless Ink, and if they mention this article — they can get a discount.