Last Updated on December 1, 2023 by The Smetz Files
We are avid college sports fans in our family. I grew up watching college basketball. Specifically I watched the ‘Big Four’ in the ACC, religiously. I have family ties to Duke, Wake Forest, NC State, and Carolina.
My dad has degrees from Duke and Wake. He loaded us up to go to Indianapolis to see Duke win their first national championship in 1991.
My granddad’s personalized license plate read, ‘Bo Pack’ in homage to his love for NC State; a basketball signed by the 1983 national championship team adorned his beloved State room.
My grandmother thought the legendary Dean Smith was a deity and when I was two years old she taught me the Carolina fight song to irritate my dad!
My brother was born the first weekend of March, the weekend of the battle of the blues, otherwise known as the Duke/Carolina game.
And more recently, living in Greensboro, a.k.a tourney town, I’ve seen my fair share of ACC tournament games.
The ball is tipped…
I love watching the NCAA tournament each March. As a kid my dad would record the final game and One Shining Moment montage that followed each championship for us to watch the next day. We rarely got to stay up past halftime growing up. But Dad would have the video set to the final few minutes of the game for my brother and me to watch while we ate breakfast before school.
I love the personal interest stories that various broadcasts air throughout March about that year’s Cinderella story. They highlight a team with a coach or player who overcame extraordinary odds and circumstances to be in the ‘dance’. Like Sister Jean, the nun who is Loyola’s biggest fan.
But really, it feels like tradition.
It reminds me of growing up and the phone calls between my dad and grandfather. Or the calls between my dad and grandmother teasing each other about their team’s good fortune in the bracket, or admiring great plays.
March Madness is part of the fodder and conversation at family dinners, even now that my brother and I are adults. Now, the family text thread lights up when one of our teams has a big night [or doesn’t].
The tradition continues. And that feels good.
Selection Sunday has aired. The brackets are announced.
Now we watch.
We enjoy the spectacle of the dance that is March Madness and we wait for the sound of One Shining Moment to denote the end of the college basketball season.
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