Two years ago, University of Dayton students saw their school put on the basketball map. After a season with little promise of greatness and little cause for notoriety, the men's Flyers basketball team got the chance to play Ohio State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. And they won, 60-59.
That win alone lead to enough school spirit to carry Flyer pride into the next season, but the team had bigger plans.
In the very next round, the No. 11-seeded Flyers beat No. 3 Syracuse, 55 to 53, and then Stanford 82-72. The university just about lost it.
Natalie Kirland was a freshman at the time and remembers watching the Syracuse game in a Founders common room. But after that win, she and all of her friends ran immediately to the Student Neighborhood.
And by "all of her friends," I mean the entire student body.
Tom Norton was a senior living on Kiefaber at the time. He said that as soon as the buzzer went off, he and his roommates got up screaming and ran out the front door. Norton remembers seeing other houses empty onto their lawns and everybody celebrating together. And then all of a sudden, it wasn't just a few houses but what seemed like every UD student crammed into the 400 block of Kiefaber.
"It just somehow became the center point. It wasn't planned but everybody knew to go there," Norton said.
Ryan Phillips, the current president of Red Scare, remembers everyone standing on lawns on either side of the street before all of a sudden, they rushed into the street at the same time. It was a move that showed the community what UD prides itself on, proving to students and alumni that the buzzword thrown around by the administration is more than just a marketing tactic. It is a way of life.
"It was just pandemonium," Phillips said. "We ran out, and it was so natural, and there wasn't anything forced about it. A bunch of people were just so excited, and they didn't know what to do, so they ran to Kiefaber."
The wins were able to bring students together into one community no matter the differences between individuals.
"It was such a Dayton response," Norton said.
There were flags being waved, impromptu chants being led, and lots of screaming and jumping. Flyer fans were ecstatic over their team's success and simply wanted to celebrate with 8,000 of their closest friends.
"I'm not a huge basketball fan, but that didn't matter. It just felt like the entire UD community was there. It felt like we weren't such a small school anymore," Kirland said. "You don't have to know much about basketball or even have gone to a game to feel it."
"To beat Syracuse, which is such a name-brand basketball school, it was just a huge thing," Norton said. "I wasn't surprised that everybody would go to the ghetto to celebrate."
In the aftermath of the Syracuse win, UD received national attention for what the media called a "riot." UD students strongly disagree with that categorization. Kirland, Norton, and Phillips all, without being asked, said that they hate the term "riot" to describe the events. Instead, they prefer "celebration."
And it was the epitome of celebrations.
It wasn't just the first big win over Syracuse that brought the community together.
"The whole 'community' thing really resonated throughout that whole run. It was another thing for everyone to bond over," Kirland said.
Unfortunately, such true celebrations probably won't happen again for UD in the near future. Now that the basketball program is established and seeing more regular success, big wins just aren't as surprising or exciting anymore.
As much as we love Flyer basketball, we also have come to expect a good team.
Last year during UD's March Madness run, there was an attempt at a celebration like the ones in 2014, but students agreed that it seemed forced. It was as if students knew people expected them to react the same way, so they tried to live up to expectations.
Then again, if the Flyers were to become national champions ... Dr. Dan might need to break out his crowd-surfing pants again.
