Mike and Carol Figura sat outside Nationwide Arena reminiscing about their first date on March 2, 1968.  Carol didn’t have feelings for Mike, but she agreed to spend the evening with him because she thought it would help her gain access into Mike’s fraternity’s social events.

Now, 44 years later, they still look back on that magical first night together where everything just seemed to align; everything but the fact that the Billikens basketball team lost a heart-breaking game to Bradley University 100-99.  That’s right, this happily married couple’s first date was at a SLU basketball game.

“We’ve been season ticket holders ever since I graduated,” Mike, class of 1969, said. “We’ve been there through the ups and downs. I remember when we’ve been to the tournament in the past and when there were less than 500 people in the stands and we thought they were going to drop the program.”

Hundreds of alumni with stories just like Mike and Carol’s covered the streets of Columbus, Ohio last weekend, reliving one of the most memorable moments of their college experience.  A sea of blue coated the bars and sidewalks outside Nationwide Area as old friends caught up about their lives and new SLU fans met for the first time.

During SLU’s campus tours, one promise the University makes to its prospective students is that after graduation, no matter where you end up in the country, you will never find yourself out of the SLU community.

The tour guide would tell these high school seniors that the networking opportunities are endless at SLU, trying to persuade them that this university will not only provide them with fun and knowledge now, but after their time on campus ends as well.  This sense of a SLU community has never been stronger and more visible than it was this last weekend when people from all across the country showed their support for the basketball team as they returned to the national spotlight.

“We’ve been rooting for SLU since West Pine was still an actual street,” 1969 alumna Mary Alice Norman said.

“We go to every game, no matter what. Even when we are 5-26, we are here,” added her friend Ken Reeves, also from the class of 1969.

Norman and Reeves knew each other while at SLU, but were never the closest of friends.  Now, however, the two are inseparable when it comes to supporting the basketball team.

“We have been to Cleveland, Memphis, Omaha and even Hawaii to watch the team,” Reeves said.

Distance did not prevent the SLU community from gathering together to show their support of the underdog Billikens, as people from Missouri, Illinois, Rhode Island, New York and many other states took the road trip to watch the second round of the NCAA tournament.  The atmosphere inside and out of the arena was warming, as it felt like a family reunion after a 12-year hiatus.

There was something special in the air last weekend. Something felt right.  SLU fans easily outnumbered Memphis fans, overtaking the arena with their loud “Let’s Go Bills” chants.  By Sunday afternoon, the chants grew louder, as the country gathered around the fearless underdogs as they competed admirably against the fourth-best team in the country.