Our Hometown Champions
March Madness is a great time for college basketball fans regardless of your diehard or fare weathered status. Irrespective of the success of your bracket selections, the human interest stories that bubble up over these weeks of NCAA basketball play for both women and men’s teams are extraordinary and often heartwarming. One of my favorite stories of the 2023 Madness of March highlights the awesomeness of our University of Dayton.
We all know the Dayton community is a huge supporter of college basketball. There’s nothing random about the NCAA’s choice to have Dayton, Ohio host the first round of tournament games. Dayton basketball fans are loyal far beyond our beloved Dayton Flyers. Case in point? The unlikely bond quickly forged between the UD Pep Band and a tournament underdog with no music.
Fairleigh Dickenson University (FDU) is a small school located in Madison, New Jersey. Last year, the FDU men’s basketball record was 4 wins and 22 loses. You might characterize that as a tough year. This year, FDU was chosen as one of the last teams selected to participate in the NCAA tournament. According to FDU’s coach, Tobin Anderson, his team is the shortest men’s college basketball team in America, with an average height of 6”1”. In the world of basketball success, not having an almost 7 foot center is perhaps a bit of a handicap. Grit, however, is not measured by height, and a huge and collaborative effort by their team helped FDU move on from UD arena as victors. Onward they would go to play against the #1 seed, Purdue University.
FDU did not go unnoticed by Dr. Willie Morris, UD’s pep band director. All UD fans know the experience of attending a UD game at the Arena is heightened exponentially by the enthusiasm and talent of the pep band. I mean, who doesn’t sing along with, “GOOOOOO Dayton Flyers!”
What’s an NCAA tournament play without the lift of the courtside pep band rousing the crowd with the sway of drum and brass instruments. Yet, FDU was not accompanied by a pep band. Dr. Morris noticed, and then along with his talented musicians, went to work. They learned the FDU fight song, prepared their pep, travelled to Columbus, and performed the FDU fight song as the underdogs from New Jersey played the biggest game of their lives. And then, that grit paid off. FDU won in a huge upset. For only the second time in NCAA history, a #16 seed defeated a #1 seed.
This is what I love about this story. The sum of circumstance is what makes this so spectacular. First, there was heartbreak after UD men’s loss in the A-10 tournament final game. Yet for Dr. Morris’ crew, there wasn’t much time for wallow. How better to fill and empty cup of loss with a willingness to give. Such is the spirit of being a Flyer. Missing cheer leaders or pep band, FDU might have felt like a small fish in a big pond. But no worries. The UD pep band showed up, giving them the accessory support needed to match the worthiest of opponents. Who knows how the UD band’s supporting role factored into a historic victory that will forever mark FDU’s place in NCAA basketball history.
This weekend we will enjoy the Final Four excitement. For those of us in Dayton, however, we will continue to be warmed by the heart of our home team. Dr. Morris and his band embody the definition of what it means to be a champion.