35 years ago today, it all began

[uconngb]

What a great post. My only issue with this post is that one could make the argument that this is not when the greatness started.

For us old timers, there was a time before this that you can point to as the flashpoint.

I was on campus for when it all started.

The NIT Championship was, to me, one of the greatest moments in our history as a dominant program.

It is hard for those not around at the time to understand what a turning point this was for our Huskies. Yes, the NIT! We were the “cellar dwellers” for so long. The easy game that every big east team looked forward to on their schedule.

And here we were at the NIT, a tourney no one wants to be in, right? Well, not us, we treated it like the NCAA Tourney, And the shades of greatness, game after game, from our upstart program. And the campus was electric for the entire tourney! Everyone was “turned in” and we watched our Huskies win it all. I still remember the celebrations on campus! Cookouts, classes cancelled, euphoria.

That win laid the groundwork for everything that followed.

Yes, I am celebrating this NIT win, maybe the only one LOL, but OMG what a great moment that was to be a Husky fan, and to me, when the greatness began!

I was there for both and on the court after the NIT win. It seemed like that was the pinnacle at the time.....who knew??

 

[August_West]

I attended all three games in person. I was a student in my senior year at UConn and scored a student ticket in the lottery. My buddy from HS went to Columbia and my girlfriend at the time (also a UConn student and also scoring a ticket in the lottery) and I stayed at his fraternity house all weekend and we trekked down to MSG each day.

After partying Saturday night at Columbia, she and I decided to stay up all night and head down to MSG in the wee hours of Sunday to get in line for seats in the student section. We were one of the firsts ones in line and sat in the second row right behind the basket - of course rushing the court after beating Syracuse. Great times...

Quite possibly the greatest month of my life. I was at my off campus apartment in knollwood for like a total of 2 days the last 3 weeks of March.

March 9-11 - MSG BET
March 14-16 - Grateful Dead Cap Centre D.C. (I missed BU Game in Hartford)
March 17- UConn vs Cal 2nd round NCAA Hartford Civic Center
March 18-19 - Grateful Dead Hartford Civic Center
March 21 - Grateful Dead Copps Coliseum Toronto
March 22 - UConn vs Clemson Meadowlands NJ
March 24- UConn vs Duke Meadowlands NJ
March 25-26 Grateful Dead Knickerbocker Arena Albany
March 28-30 Grateful Dead Nassau Coliseum (Branford Marsalis on 3/29!)

The friends I was on Dead tour with (they were from New Jersey mostly) thought I was nuts hopping off tour for basketball games, but I would've gladly missed Nassau and went straight to Denver for the Final Four. I was ready.

Despite the crushing loss to Duke, and it was crushing, I'd gladly relive that month 100 times over.