{"id":10470,"date":"2017-03-15T08:56:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-15T08:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/2017\/03\/15\/march-gladness-a-northwestern-fan-celebrates-the-teams-first-ncaa-bid\/"},"modified":"2017-03-15T08:56:00","modified_gmt":"2017-03-15T08:56:00","slug":"march-gladness-a-northwestern-fan-celebrates-the-teams-first-ncaa-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/march-gladness-a-northwestern-fan-celebrates-the-teams-first-ncaa-bid\/","title":{"rendered":"March Gladness: A Northwestern Fan Celebrates The Team's First NCAA Bid"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Kevin Blackistone<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

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\n Northwestern head coach Chris Collins, center, and players at an NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament Selection Show watch party on Mar. 12, 2017.<\/p>\n

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Nam Y. Huh\/AP<\/p>\n

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Nam Y. Huh\/AP<\/p>\n

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It was another freezing January night in Evanston, Ill., in 1979, when Magic Johnson’s Spartans showed up at McGaw Hall, Northwestern’s basketball arena. (Arena. Ha! A shotgun shack had more in common with a mansion.)<\/p>\n

The indoor track that tunneled through McGaw’s bleachers was blanketed with cinders, a warm redoubt for rodents seeking shelter.<\/p>\n

But that night, my Wildcats gave no quarter. They pinned on Magic’s eventual national championship team one of its six losses, or as many measly games as the ‘Cats won \u2014 which was why I wasn’t there, or thousands of other Northwestern fans who’ll tell you now they were. Going to the library was more fun. The basketball team never finished above last during my four years.<\/p>\n

So when Northwestern was called Sunday to the NCAA Tournament, college sports’ signature event \u2014 for the first time in the three-quarters-of-a-century-old history of the so-called Big Dance \u2014 I yelped. Tweeted a GIF of a cat doing a boogie. Texted classmates. And, just between us, dipped into my daughter’s college fund to fly to Salt Lake City on Thursday to see the ‘Cats play Vanderbilt.<\/p>\n