College Basketball and the Connective Tissue of Sports

It’s about fans, not them.

If you will indulge me, I would like to talk today about this shirt:

The man on that shirt, signaling “Illinois, №1, Baby!” is Dick Vitale, captured in caricature there at the age of 49, back when he (and the sport he became the public face of for decades) was entering the peak of his ubiquity and influence. On January 22, 1989, the №2-ranked Illinois Fighting Illini men’s basketball team, led by Nick Anderson, Kendall Gill and Kenny Battle, overcame a 16-point deficit against Georgia Tech to defeat the Yellow Jackets in an overtime Sunday afternoon game on national network television. Vitale was the broadcaster on that telecast, and after a typically thunderous late Battle dunk that clinched the game, he screamed “The Flying Illini, №1, baby!” into the microphone.

I was 13 years old, obsessed with Illinois basketball and bouncing myself off every wall in every room. The game, and that call, instantly electrified everyone in my life. It was as if we had all gone national.