By Julia Comerford

If you’ve ever walked passed Finlay Hall during your daily commute to FMH or Walsh gate you may have noticed a clever sign in the window of Finlay 123 facing the walkway.

Maybe you chuckled to yourself or even took a Snapchat of the clever statement posted on it. But did you ever wonder who the geniuses were behind those sentiments?

In early October of 2017, CJ Ghanoo, Phil Mongelluzzo, Luke DeMonico and Gavin Ross — all FCRH ’20 — posted their first sign in the window of Finlay 123.

Although they no longer reside in Finlay 123, they were happy to share with the Fordham community the story of how the original sign began.

The budding sophomores knew that it was the sole responsibility and tradition of the residents of the ground-level Finlay room each year to put something funny in the window of their dorm because it faces a main walkway on campus.

They were eager to think of something creative. Luke DeMonico struck gold with an idea when he found a light box sign in Urban Outfitters for a whopping forty dollars.

He and the rest of the gang then proceeded to find the same thing on Amazon for much cheaper and bought two.

DeMonico said, “The first order of business was telling the world about our plant theft, which we were all really upset about.”

Someone had stolen the plant from the windowsill of their slightly cracked open window.

The next few signs following the incident included: “Someone took my plant”, “Who steals a plant?”, “I miss my plant.”

The boys never got their plant back, but what they got was an audience for their sign and more ideas for what they wanted to say with it.

Every Tuesday night the boys would gather on the floor of Finlay 123 and put together a masterpiece statement for the sign for that week.

They wanted to use the sign to make people laugh.

Some of their favorite signs include, “Mmmmmm Zesty,” “Juul culture is vape culture,” “Alexa play Toto by Africa,” “Why do you gotta fight with me at Goose you know I love to go there,” and “Father Mcshnane won’t answer my emails.”

Soon they started seeing photos of their signs on social media and that’s when they realized they made it big.

The residents of Finlay 123 had a blast creating new signs every week that had to do with current events, holidays and humorous statements having to do with Fordham.

They even had “office hours” on weekend nights where they would sit in their room with the window fully open and be entertained by passersby on their way to go out or on their way home from going out.

People would come up to the window and comment on their sign, offer them pizza or even try and climb into the window on a rare occasion.

Their window became a well-known icon to look forward to seeing on your dreadful walk to FMH on a snowy or rainy day.

As the audience for their sign grew, the boys never let the fame get to their head.

They would often walk by the room from the outside, see people taking photos of the sign, and feel compelled to let them know that they were the creators of the hilarious sign that just made their day.

“It’s like in the movies when someone fakes their death and they are at their funeral in a trenchcoat watching from a distance,” DeMonico said.

But they never did go up to people because they wanted to stay humble.

The boys discussed how they contemplated putting their social media on the sign at the end of the year to reveal who they were but then restrained, saying, “It wasn’t about us it was about the sign.”

When asked their opinion on the current residents of Finlay 123 who have continued the light box sign tradition in the window, the boys collectively stated, “We are flattered by the repetition but we made the sign because we wanted to say something. They made the sign because they want to be heard.”

Ghanoo, Mongelluzzo, DeMonico and Ross wanted to share some of the signs that were never posted.

They include, “Shopping List: Eggs, Bread, Milk,” “Golf is not a sport,” “This sign is gluten free,” “Ask not for whom the bell tolls it tolls for my gpa.”

Although The Finlay Sign Guys, who are now juniors, have since parted their separate ways, they will always be brought back to their humble beginnings whenever they stroll past Finlay 123.