What a FF trip meant to one fan.
One of the great things about this position is that I can amplify voices of those that have something to say. Today is one of those times. An introduction is in order. This story was sent to me by my best friend Matt Lake. Purdue graduate in 2008 and 2010. President of the Paint Crew 2007-2008 and helped usher in the general admission seating to the student section. Here are his thoughts on Purdue making it to the Final Four.
I grew up in central Indiana. My high school basketball gym would be considered by many to be gigantic – extravagant, even. In Indiana, it’s not even one of the ten largest. I went to basketball games with my face painted and screamed alongside five thousand of my closest friends. I remember dressing up with my friends in shirts that read “Athletic Supporter” accompanied by jock straps on the outside of our shorts. I’ve long had an affinity for novelty, though I wasn’t able to articulate it until recently. Any time I can try something new, especially with friends, I’m in. These experiences led to a deep love of the game of basketball early in life.
When I went to Purdue, this love quickly transformed into rabid fanhood and participation in The Paint Crew. I quickly learned the heartache of Purdue fans that came before me. My freshman year was Gene Keady’s final season. Our Boilermakers won a total of seven games. Not seventeen. Seven. The following season was an improvement – nine wins. Then came David Teague and Carl Landry. Followed by the Baby Boilers. We rushed the court when Robbie blocked the late Wisconsin runout and knocked down a couple free throws to seal that game. That, we said, was our announcement to the world that Matt Painter had brought us back.
When I became the president of The Paint Crew, I had the pleasure of working with Coach Painter and having a few conversations with him. I quickly became a huge fan of him as a person. He is legitimately one of the smartest people I’ve ever had the opportunity to talk to. He went through some years of struggles when he tried to follow somebody else’s blueprint, but he had the self-awareness to realize that he was the problem. Then came the current run of reloading year after year of elite teams.
As much as I love basketball, when people ask me if I saw this game or that game, the answer is probably no if it wasn’t a Purdue game. I think there are probably a lot of reasons that I enjoy college basketball over the pros. Reasons I enjoy Purdue over other teams. I think most of this is due to the human element. The NBA’s greats are obviously much more talented than Purdue’s best. But I don’t know them. Every few years, I get to meet new young people who are going through similar coming of age experiences that I look back on so fondly. Now, when I say meet, I don’t mean literally. I have a classic parasocial relationship with all of the players, coaches, and personalities surrounding the team. I know them very well – or at least it feels that way. Most, probably all, of them don’t know I exist.
I have a master’s degree in sports management from Purdue so I understand the psychology behind most of my feelings. I can tell you that waiting so long for this Final Four made it sweeter. The lows make the highs much higher. Losing to FDU made this sweeter. The heartbreak of the Virginia game made this sweeter. When Purdue made this Final Four I was excited, but also a little disappointed because selfishly, I wanted to go. I wanted to be there, but Phoenix just provided too many logistical and financial challenges for me to be there.
This is where the other human element of sports comes in. It gives us friends with a common interest – sometimes people we’d never meet or be friends with otherwise. In my case, I have a bunch of friends who I went to Purdue with that I don’t see very often. When Purdue won their Elite Eight game, it was like we were all together again. All the group texts fired up. People offered to share hotel rooms, rent cars together, alternate flight paths and alternate plans altogether.
I knew I didn’t want to watch this game alone. I knew it was special, and I needed to be around friends. I knew that my emotions would be mixed no matter what happened. If we lost, disappointment that we got so close, but pride that we got this far. If we won, elation for the team, but sadness that I couldn’t be there. I suggested to my wife that we host a watch party with all of our friends here in Myrtle Beach. She was supportive, but she expressed the feeling that I was suppressing that it wouldn’t be the same as watching with Purdue people. Then, I talked to Kelsey who organizes watch parties in Indianapolis. A plan began to come together, and I booked a flight to watch the games at a bar surrounded by Boilers.
With a supportive wife and a friend who I hadn’t seen in person in 15 years, we arranged for a novel trip to be with my people. For five days, I learned about my friend’s life for the first time in forever. We shared memories, life challenges and successes. We watched basketball. We shared screams, hugs and tears like we were in college again. I was surprised, however, at our emotions after the final game. Everyone trying to articulate how two things can be true. That we feel the hurt of losing, but we are so proud of these young men. You see, part of the human experience of college basketball is that you get to see these young men’s minds and bodies develop right in front of your eyes. We’ve watched these guys make so much progress. We sat and listened to Julia Edey tell Zach how proud she was of him. We wept, reminded how these are still children – young men, but still momma’s boys.
When we went to campus on Tuesday to greet the team, we took a young lady with us who is a recent graduate. She’s smarter now than I’ll ever be, but we gave her plenty of life advice that I hope will help her along the way. At some point, we realized that we’re more likely to be mistaken for freshmen parents than students at this point which gave us pause. As we greeted the team, we tried not to read too much into the emotions of players as hundreds of fans cheered them on and thanked them for the ride that they let us come on with them. One day ago, they lost the biggest game of their lives, but three days ago, they won the biggest game of their lives to that point. It’s important to let them feel all the feelings. It’s ok for emotions to have nuance. They aren’t always clear, especially when the pain is fresh.
As I prepared to leave, my friend and I embraced in a long hug and told each other that we needed this more than we could have possibly known. We needed this reconnection. We needed to be able to share the mixed emotions with someone feeling similar things. This Final Four was about so much more than basketball. I know I’m not the only one with a similar story of how this run affected them. This is the human story of how sports bring us together. I hope that these boys – young men – know how much this means to all of us. I hope they understand that for many of us, their stories let us go through the full spectrum of emotions, meet new people and reconnect with old friends. I hope they watched Robbie cry on live TV and realize that he’s far from the only one overcome by emotion for so many reasons.