You think you know, but you have no idea…There is a man behind the muscle, folks. He’s soft-spoken, he likes his mammals and his protein, and he ain’t afraid to aerobicize with the ladies. Call him what nickname you will, but read on and know that you, too can call Justin Hagen ’04 a friend.
 

Where are you from?

Owatonna, Minn. About an hour south of here.
 

What were you like in high school?

I was kind of a jock I guess. Well, in high school I played football, I wrestled and I ran track.
 

Just football now though?

Yeah.
 

So what was your awkward stage?

An awkward stage? What do you mean?
 

Come on, what were you like in middle school?

I was pretty quiet in middle school. After my first serious girlfriend I got a lot less quiet. I lived out in the country with my mom until high school, then I lived in town with my dad when I was a freshman, there was more to do.
 

What's your major?

Biology.
 

Where do you work?

I work at O'Gara's, and the liquor store, Park.
 

Which do you like better?

Ummm, the liquor store.
 

Do you card people?

I card the people I need to, I guess.
 

[Jesse Batty ’04, a teammate of Justin’s, stops by and demands to know why Justin is being spotlighted and not him. I ask who can bench what: Justin 420, Jesse throws out some suspiciously low numbers but everyone seems to be satisfied with 150. There's your answer, I tell him.]
 

You break up a lot of fights?

Yeah. At O’Gara’s you run in to a lot of drunk people. St. Patrick’s Day there's always a couple. After one of the playoff games there was a fight.
 

You ever get hurt?

No.
 

You throw down?

Yeah.
 

What's the best class you've ever taken at Macalester?

[thinks for a loooong time] I took Marine Mammals last semester. That was probably the most interesting class I’ve taken, I guess.
 

Any advice for underclassmen as a wise senior?

Have a good time while you're here. Don't let academics take control of your life, have a lot of fun. I've definitely had a lot of fun in my time here.
 

What happens when you graduate?

I'm gonna take a year off. I never got to go abroad cause of football and I thought I wanted to do pre-med. So I'll work for a year, travel someplace.
 

Where do you want to go?

I have no idea. I'm not going to med school though. Maybe I'll think about pharmaceutical school, but I think traveling will help me figure out what I want to do.
 

What do your friends call you?

Sometimes Juice. Mostly they just call me by my last name, Hagen.
 

Any other nicknames that you've heard?

Yeah, I've heard a few. My sophomore year I heard BAM, Big Armed Man. I heard a couple others, I remember someone told me they called me Breasts of Glorious Devastation.
 

Whoa. Does that piss you off?

No, it doesn't piss me off at all.
 

Why do you like football?

I don't know, I've played since third or fourth grade, I've always been pretty good at it. I just like the competition. Trying to beat the guy in front of you.
 

Give me your best pick-up line.

I don't really use pick-up lines. [a little too quickly]: But I know a good one: How much does a polar bear weigh?
 

How much?

I bet enough to break the ice. Hi, I'm Justin. [he shoots me a sweet smile - I'm smitten, there's giggling] No, really, I don't use pickup lines though. Only when I'm drunk, sometimes.
 

What do you think of the Macalester dating scene?

I dated someone my whole first year here, which was cool. And I've pretty much been single since then. I like being in the cities. Once you turn 21, if you can't find anybody around here you can always meet somebody out in the cities.
 

Where do you shop for clothes?

I shop a lot at Express and Nordstrom. Mostly those two places I guess.
 

Is it hard to find clothing that fits comfortably?

Um, it was a lot harder last year, cause I weighed a lot more then. Most XL shirts are pretty tight, sometimes you just can't find clothes that fit you very well. They have XXL stuff, but that's stuff is really big, you know, I don't like clothes that big. I like to wear shirts that are a little bit tighter.
 

What happened over the summer?

I worked out a lot, I lifted every day, I just stopped lifting as much and did more repetitions. I started doing cardio twice a day instead of lifting twice a day.
 

You were in my step aerobics class.

Yep, I do aerobics at Macalester.
 

Do you still do it?

Not during the season, but I'll do it again. It's a really good workout: you can't find a workout better than that.
 

Any other football players do it with you?

A few guys tried it once or twice, but they didn't really make it. It's pretty hard. I don't know if they felt really comfortable, either. Usually you're the only guys in there.
 

Doesn't bother you?

No, not at all.
 

How's your coordination?

I hold my own in aerobics class. I did it in high school too, did some Tae-Bo.
 

Do you feel alienated as an athlete at Macalester?

A little bit. There's definitely a stereotype of football players. I mean, I don't know why it is. Maybe it's because we tend to get really drunk and make asses of ourselves sometimes. I'm friends with a lot of people that are non-athletes. I guess it’s something that you can overcome as an individual. Just hanging out with athletes it'd be hard, but it's pretty easy to meet people here; everybody's really friendly. The one thing I really like is that everybody's from a different place. I have lots of friends from other countries and stuff and I think that's really cool.
 

What's your favorite Café Mac line?

I pretty much just eat chicken breasts, for most of my meals. I don't know if its my favorite but it's what I eat most of the time.
 

Just chicken breasts?

Pretty much, during the week that's all I eat. Well, breakfast is the best meal I would say, I try to never miss breakfast.
 

What do you eat, eggs?

Yeah, pretty much. Sometimes a piece of toast. I eat really healthy during the week, a high-protein low-carb diet, and on the weekends I eat whatever I want.
 

Huh, my brother does that.

Yeah, it seems to work.
 

What should Macalester know about you?

I want people to know that I'm a nice guy. I hope people aren't intimidated by me; I could see that happening but I hope they aren't. They should come up and talk to me, especially if they want to get drunk on the weekends. Well, maybe you shouldn't write that in there.