We’ve been remembering the Apollo 11 mission a lot recently. It was a seminal moment in the history of humankind. People were, and still are, very excited about it.
But Marquette University seems to have been especially excited, because in addition to creating an award just so they had one to give to the astronauts (note to self: do this for something), the university’s basketball program basically made the 1969-70 season all about the moon landing.
They put Apollo 11 patches on their warmups.
And they, too, went to new heights in their field, winning the program’s first NIT.
But how they got there is an inspirational story in and of itself. You see, at that point in college basketball history, a certain cartel was still trying to establish their pet postseason tournament as the top one, despite the public’s clear devotion to the NIT. Marquette coach Al McGuire was having none of it, and when the NCAA tried to send his guys to Ft. Worth instead of Dayton (which was closer), he put his foot down. The Warriors (as they were then called) would play in the NIT, and they’d win the damn thing.
It’s a story of courage. It’s a story of nobility. It’s a story of defying racketeering.
And it’s a story that changed the course of college basketball.
The next year, the NCAA put in place a rule prohibiting teams from choosing the NIT over its bastard cousin. It tried to kill the NIT. Still, like Maya Angelou, the NIT rose.
The NIT withstood this assault on its livelihood, persisting over the next five decades. And now, it’s time to return.
Yes, just as the calls for a return to the moon grow stronger, so too do the cries for a return to the days of choice: when a basketball program could decide what was best for it, independent of the will of some self-erected mafia. The movement pulses through the streets of our cities. It grows in the fertile ground of our fields. It storms across the nation, growing every day as more and more basketball fans say enough is enough.
They may not hear us now. They may never listen. But their tyranny will not stand. The NIT will once again take its place as college basketball’s rightful universally recognized premier postseason tournament.
Keep the faith, friends.
Keep the faith.
