There are moments that will forever stick out in your mind; moments that bring a father and son closer. For me, that moment was the 1989 NCAA Tournament. More specifically, I’m referring to the Championship Game. 

The 1989 Championship Game was the first time my father was able to coax my mother into allowing me to stay up past my bedtime to watch a sporting event with him. This was the first year I had ever done an NCAA bracket, and I actually had Michigan and Seton Hall in the Championship game. I had Michigan winning the game too. 

I still remember my father trying to talk me out of rooting for Michigan. 

“Seton Hall wears blue uniforms. Blue is your favorite color.”  

“Seton Hall is a Catholic school. Aren’t you an altar boy?  You shouldn’t root against a Catholic school as an altar boy.”

“Seton Hall is in the Big East!”

There, you see, my father was like the dad in Rudy. There’s only one conference we root for in this house, and that’s the Big East. I remember when Getty did their annual Big East glasses promotion, my Dad would make sure he got each and ever glass to complete the set – even Miami. He never much liked Miami joining the Big East. 

I’ll be honest, my father had me close. It was only the second time in my life my Dad had a different rooting interest than me. The first time was the Flipper Anderson Game. It made me nervous, but I still was rooting for Michigan. I had them all along. It’s funny how on the night, I was the biggest Michigan fan in the world. That also meant I was rooting hard for Seton Hall to lose. 

Life is funny. I grew up to be a Seton Hall fan.  There are times that I want to go back in time, smack that kid upside the head, and say, “What’re you doing?  We root for Seton Hall!”  I would then utilize that time machine to stop the referee from making a bogus call to send that game into overtime. 

But no, in 1989, I was a Michigan fan. More importantly, I was hooked on college basketball and the NCAA tournament. From that year forward, I ran a pool. I ran it in my Catholic elementary school, high school, and beyond. In college, my pool including the do entire dorm, the accounting department, and half the faculty in the School of Business. 

During this long journey, I became a Seton Hall fan. It wasn’t because of Gary Cohen, but trust me, I love that he’s the radio play-by-play announcer. It’s also not because of Bill Raftery, although every college basketball fan should hold a special place in their hearts for Seton Hall because they brought Bill Raftery to the scene. Every time this NCAA Tournament you hear him describe a team starting out “man-to-man” or scream “ONIONS!” after a huge shot, thank Seton Hall. Conversely, don’t blame us for Dick Vitale. 

In any event, I’m a Seton Hall fan, and in the first year at the Prudential Center, I was a season ticket holder. There have been few ups and many downs in my rooting for Seton Hall. The most baffling was the change in Pirate mascots. Amongst the lowest was last year, when the team collapsed. The year and team were so bad, on and off the court, that good players left the school rather than dealing with that nonsense. Kevin Willard kept his job in a situation where 99 out of a 100 coaches would’ve lost their jobs. Seton Hall made the right choice. 

For the first time in 23 years, Seton Hall won the Big East Tournament. It really is an amazing feeling. The Dukes of the world take things like this in stride. For Seton Hall fans, this is a momentous occasion. There’s no telling what this team will do in the NCAA Tournament, but after seeing them knock off Xavier and Villanova on back-to-back nights, I’m ruling nothing out. 

So for the next month, not only do I get the chance to watch the NCAA Tournament, which I love, I get to see Seton Hall play in it. Even better, Seton Hall has a legitimate chance to make some noise. It looks like 2016 is off to an amazing start in my corner of the sports world. 

Onward Setonia, we are bound for victory . . .