I continue to ease my frustrations with Indiana University basketball by dwelling on the past. I was at an antique show yesterday with a friend and bought a NCAA Final Four lapel pin collection for $20. There were ten pins from the cities that hosted the event between the years1977 and 1986. I recall being at three of these championships, and had I bought a pin at each site I would have spent at least $50, so ownership seemed worth it. There was only one Indiana championship in that 10 year period, and that took place  in Philadelphia in 1981, with Isiah Thomas, Randy Wittman, Ted Kitchel, Landon Turner, Steve Risley, Ray Tolbert, Glen Grunwald, and of course Coach Bobby Knight. They lost 9 games that year, but the team seemed to come together late in the season. Thomas and Tolbert were both first round NBA draft choices, while Grunwald and Risley were drafted in later rounds, Wittman, Steve Bouchie, Tony Brown, Jim Thomas, and Landon Turner were drafted in subsequent years, but Turner was permanently paralyzed in an automobile accident that left him confined to a wheelchair, suddenly ending any hopes for an NBA future.  The disappointing thing about my pin set is that Indiana won the National Championship the year before and the year after this collection was issued, so I will need to find pins for at least those two years, and some of the other years that I attended.

I went to my first Final Four in nearby Indianapolis back in 1980 at Market Square Arena when Purdue finished third and Louisville cut down the nets. The next year in Philadelphia was IU’s championship, and then the following year I traveled to New Orleans to watch North Carolina and freshman Michael Jordan beat Georgetown and Patrick Ewing.  It was the only NCAA championship game to feature three of  the NBA 50 Greatest Players (Jordan, Ewing, and James Worthy). The silly third place game had finally ended the year before, otherwise I would have seen Houston’s “Phi Slamma Jamma” play defending champion Louisville. It was indeed a Final Four for the ages! I returned to New Orleans in 1987 to watch IU’s Keith Smart hit “The Shot.” It unfortunately was the fifth and final championship for my Hoosiers in now over 30 years. I then had to watch Duke win it in Indianapolis at the Hoosier Dome in 1991 and again in 1992 in Minneapolis. That frustrating game was IU’s only loss in the opener of a Final Four, as they had won the tournament every time in their five previous appearances. In all honesty, we gave away our prime CBS tickets to the finale and got out of Dodge. It was Blue Devil and Coach K history that I didn’t want to see!

Indianapolis hosted in 2000, as Michigan State won over Florida, after North Carolina and Wisconsin were ousted. A good friend was a Spartan grad and hosted a celebration party where I overdid it on tequila shots. The TV station I worked for had a suite, so I was also involved in entertaining clients. The most memorable thing was that the hypochondriac wife of my boss was desperately trying to get a hold of him, and actually had them contact him through the scoreboard. I remember his name was flashed on the screen along with a message to call home.

Indiana then lost to Maryland in the championship game of 2002 in Atlanta. I was unable to go for some reason, probably because they had lost their tournament vulnerability ten years before. Mike Davis had replaced Bobby Knight that year, and somehow got that team to the championship despite 10 regular season losses and an additional loss in the Big Ten Tournament. They got some revenge on top-ranked Duke that year by upsetting them with in the Sweet Sixteen. They then went on to beat Oklahoma and Coach Kelvin Sampson, who would replace Davis and lead the team into NCAA probation hell. Jared Jeffries, Dane Fife, and Tom Coverdale starred for the Hoosier team that earned the dubious honor of losing the school’s very first NCAA Championship game. IU had won in their previous five appearances, and have not made it back since. Kelvin Sampson was the beginning of the program’s downfall, that experienced a brief surge under Tom Crean, and is now in the hands of Archie Miller. Maybe sometime in the future it will be “Miller Time!” (See Post #35)

In 2006, Indy once again hosted the event, so I was able to attend my 8th Final Four (and 7th Championship game). Florida won the title over UCLA, and we were able to attend all the CBS celebrity events that year. I remember spending a lot of time talking with an  up-and-coming unknown named Ray Romano, so the parties were much more memorable than the games. In 2010 it was wife’s Alma mater, Butler, that beat Michigan State but fell short against evil Duke. We then followed Butler to Houston, Texas in 2011, or they followed us. My wife had been transferred to Austin, so coincidentally another Final Four with Butler was within easy driving distance. Unfortunately, the Bulldogs lost again.

I’m now stuck on 10 Final Four appearances in my lifetime, and will be out of the country for this year’s games in San Antonio. Although, it might have been a good excuse to revisit some friends in Austin. As much as I hate to admit it, I hope that Purdue makes the field. After coming home from the antique show and showing off my new pin collection, I watched my inconsistent Hoosiers stumble mightily to the Michigan State Spartans, another team that has the potential to make it to San Antonio. I’m tired of losing, and miss those aspirations of making it to the Final Four, so I’m beginning to lose my hatred of the Boilermakers, and falling back on memories of working with Coach Gene Keady on his weekly televised basketball show. The TV station that I managed for several years in Lafayette, Indiana was the home of the Black & Gold, so I slowly learned to shed some of my bias towards IU’s biggest in-state rival. It’s time to decidedly leap on their bandwagon!

Purdue won the Old Oaken Bucket, what I sometimes call the Toilet Bowl, from IU in football his past season, and went on to win, in dramatic fashion, the lowly Foster Farms clash against Arizona. Back in 2001, while running WLFI-TV, I spared no expense to send a broadcast crew to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, to cover the Boilers and future Hall-of-Fame Quarterback Drew Brees. They lost to Washington, but gave me reason to include a few Boilermaker souvenirs in my sports collection. Since IU hasn’t even come close to being in a Rose Bowl since 1968, it’s been very easy to stray from any IU football allegiance. I’m growing tired of supporting losers like IU, The Colts, and Da’ Bears. I often wish I had gone to grad school, so I’d have other collegiate teams to support. I enjoy watching Butler win, except against IU, and have tried hard to root for the Oregon teams, but haven’t made that passionate connection, as yet. I felt sorry for Drew Brees this past weekend, losing a chance for his Saints to advance, due to a rookie teammate blunder. Instead it was the Minnesota Vikings who will play against the Eagles for a home Super Bowl appearance. They were once a favorite of mine because of the color purple. I once painted my Electric Football team as the Vikings, choosing them for some unknown reason over the Chicago Bears and the Baltimore (now Indianapolis) Colts. I’m jumping on their bandwagon, too. Boiler Up and Go Vikes – I’ll wear your pin!