Zooming with the Aces #15: March Madness, 3/16/23

Class of 1960 Zoomers, 3/16/23

Host Fred Elder convened the Zoom session at 3 p.m. He asked the Zoomers to identify themselves and tell us where they were.  After that, he turned the meeting over to Dan Tontz who handled the moderator duties with skill and aplomb!

Participants

Row 1: Glenna Stearman Park, Fred Elder, Dan Tontz   Row 2: Marilyn Bellert, Perry Ann Porter, Marcia Qualey Connolly.  Row 3: Skip Granger, Mert Curtis, Jane Thompson Olson.  Row 4: Lee Ayres.

Editor’s Note: The comments below are told in the first person, but this is a summary not a verbatim transcript. If your comments need to be revised, let us know.

Marcia Qualey Connolly (Georgetown, Texas) joined a Class of 1960 Zoom for the first time, so we asked for a quick summary of where she has been all these years. “After Wichita, I attended KU and met my love in Music Education. Then, I survived three additional marriages and divorces until I landed in Texas in 1980, where I have lived since becoming a legal assistant and an executive assistant. And most recently, a Montessori teacher. Retiring at 80 in June!  I’m happily single. The weather here in Texas is awesome. This area is famous for Blue Bonnets in the spring, and they are spectacular. This is only the second reunion I have attended. The first one was our 50th.”

Before discussion started, Skip Granger shared memories of a special friend and classmate Bob Bohling, whose birthdate was March 7. Like many other classmates, Skip received gifts and letters from Bob, who died last year. For more about Bob, see “Bob Bohling, Celebrating a Good Old Friend”  and “Remembering Bob Bohling, 1942-2022.” 

Today’s topic, March Madness, was suggested by basketball fan Dan Tontz, who moderated the discussion.

Dan Tontz (Dallas, TX): Welcome to March Madness, a total of 63 college basketball games being played over the next 2 1/2 weeks. Some people watch most of the games, including me. Today, 16 games are being played, broadcast over 13 hours on 4 networks. At any one time there are 3 or 4 games going on.  I know primarily about men’s college basketball, but I can see that women’s basketball gets a lot of media attention; they also do bracketology, like men’s.

First, let’s go around to find out your level of interest in March Madness on a scale from 1 to 5, from little or no interest (#1) to serious fan (#5).  If you are a fan, do you make a bracket? How many games will you watch? Do you have favorite teams? Or maybe you have a family member or friend who is interested. If not watching basketball games, what will you be doing for the next few weeks?

Glenna Stearman Park (Montgomery Village, MD): #1.5 or 2.  I only got to that level because my cousin made me watch the Maryland women’s team. I’m not hostile to sports, but there are other things that interest me more.

Marcia Qualey Connolly (Greenwood, TX): Probably -1. Dan asked about my accent. I’ve been in Texas for 40 years and definitely have an accent. I am ignorant about sports except for knowing they exist at the college where my grandchildren go – Penn State, Alabama, Texas A&M. My grandkids are into sports.  I didn’t know what March Madness was until today.

Jane Thompson Olson (Gulf Shores, AL today): I’m a #5. I love sports. Always have. I think KU will go all the way again this year. They played a great game today. I will be watching games from our travelling home. We will be at Gulf Shores until April 9. Yes, I have made a bracket. I have KU playing Alabama for the final. Sometimes,  low-ranked teams come out of nowhere.

Lee Ayres (Fresno, CA): My interest is at #5  because KU is in the tournament. I have a March Madness story about the 1988 championship from my wife Shelley. “Danny and the Miracles” were our team. 

They were the 6th seed, but won all the way to play Oklahoma for the final championship. Shelley was married to a police officer in Lawrence at the time. Don worked as a security officer for the team.  The night before the KU/OK game, Don and Shelley went to a bar where several Oklahoma players were drinking, not having an early night because of the next day’s game.  On the day of the game Shelley was assigned to escort KU Coach Larry Brown from the Marriott to the game.  She says Larry was “white as a sheet without much to say.” As they left the hotel, she told him, “Coach, you know you are going to win today.” Coach said, “I hope so.” They did win! Don and Shelley rode back to Lawrence on the bus and sat behind the coach. Back in Lawrence, the streets were full. It was a memorable game.

Dan Tontz: Lee’s story illustrates several things: basketball is a game of inches, and games are often settled in the last few minutes.

Skip Granger (Sun Lakes, AZ):  I wanted to be here for today’s Zoom session, so I went to the clubhouse to see the Iowa State game. The place was backed, and I couldn’t get in. I will ask Alexa how the game came out. (He did and Alexa dutifully told us that the final score was was 96-68 and would have added more detail if Skip had not turned her off.) We’ve been March Madness fans for a long time. Phoenix is now the fifth-largest city in the U.S. and has so many KU fans that there are three watch party groups for KU. It’s always fun to see the games with others who are singing and rooting.

Marilyn Tompkins Bellert (Sycamore, IL): Like Glenna, I am a 1.5 or 2 on March Madness. My first experience with the NCAA championships was 20 years ago, when I learned that my son-in-law was teaching his three children (4, 6, and 9) to make brackets and follow the teams they researched and placed on their brackets. Those kids used a lot of math and reading skills, which Grandma thought was cool. They all still make brackets and participate in pools. I got interested in basketball as a player on our church team. At that time, before Title IX, inter-scholastic sports for girls did not exist. Even for the church leagues, at that time girls were restricted to playing half-court and not dribbling more than three times.  It was very frustrating for players, who were hardly as fragile as the male rule-makers thought. I do attend Northern University Women’s Basketball games and love the athleticism of women’s games today. Instead of watching March Madness games, however, I’m busy with other interests, including working on the Class of 1960 website. 

Click on this link to read about Girls Sports – 1960 Style at East High. At the end of the story is a photo of the East Heights Methodist basketball team with Marilyn and other East High women.

Mary Lancaster Curtis (St. John, KS): I’m a 3 to 5, depending on what else is going on. I enjoy basketball more than any other sport. A young man from St. John, Dean Wade is now playing for the Cavaliers. I watched him play from middle school all the way through college.  I follow whatever is interesting that comes along.

Perry Ann Porter Brown (Poulsbo, WA):  I’m between #3 and #5. Out here in the Northwest, we have plastic world baseball which seems like March Madness to me. This week, teams from Cuba and other countries are in town. I remember well that Wichita is a basketball town.  At Wichita State, we went to school with Wilt Chamberlain, Nate Bowman, Dave Stallworth, Dave Leach, and others. Because the coach wanted them to learn to follow complex directions, make quick movements, and develop rhythm, they took classes like dance. I like to watch any sports.  Editors Note – Wilt played at Kansas.

Fred Elder (Madison, WI): I’m a #5 if KU or Wisconsin is playing. A #3 otherwise. I don’t do brackets. Keeping track of big spreadsheets is not my idea of a good time. . Like Perry Ann, 3 or 5 depending on who is playing.

“Bracketology”

Dan Tontz: Fred has given me a nice segue, so I can explain bracketology. Here is an 8×11 bracket, which I printed off after signing up on the CBS website. Bracketology was invented by ESPN a few years ago. The bracket shows all 63 games. You take a blank bracket and fill in the spaces with team names, winners and losers. The ultimate goal is to pick the winners of all games.  The tabulation gets done for you, since you can fill out the bracket online, doing it with clicks. You don’t learn as much math.  I start with finding teams that might create upsets. By 5 a.m. this morning, more than 5 million people had created brackets.

Another part of bracketology is the gambling pools. A family, group of friends, or organization can create a pool. Fans can take their brackets, group them with other friends and charge an entry fee. Within my little pool of 30 fans, we put in $5 each to participate.

Jane Olson: I did a bracket with my grandson’s group, which is all KU fans except my husband, a die-hard Badgers fan. I have done brackets for the last few years. It’s fun to see how your picks work out.

Dan: To get information for my bracket, I watch lengthy ESPN shows and listen to the experts’ forecasts. 

Jane: I read different experts and base my picks on games I watched and what the experts had to say. I would love to win ESPN’s $5,000 pool. On the CBS bracket, you can see the “seeding” of the top 16 teams. That helps you decide which to pick. KU is seeded #1 this year.

Skip: I had a pre-Covid group that did brackets. I won every time, but because I could eat more than anyone else. I also remember WSU player Nate Schafer, who was my law school classmate and is now a judge.

Dan: Has anyone else had experience with brackets? Bracketing is unique to American college basketball. It involves audience participation for several weeks, and gets fans involved in the games. I am in two pools. I rode KU all the way last year and won second place in one of my pools. I’m not usually that successful. Gambling is old as the hills, but the bracketing makes the gambling more interesting for college basketball.

Lee: Dan, how do you pick teams to follow? You live in Texas now, and five or six Texas schools are in the tournament.

Dan: I am an Aggie dad, so I root for KU, WU Shockers and Texas A&M. If you like emotion, basketball games provide them all – joy, confusion, drama, disappointment, suspense, suspicion, and more.

Miscellaneous Basketball 

Dan: Do any of you have memories of the East High championship game in 1960? We played Wyandotte in Kansas City and lost 44-41. Our yearbook has conflicting information, one table that shows the real score, but text that shows us having won.

Marilyn: I remember going to the state championship game. There were hundreds of Pep Club members there cheering and all wearing the beautiful blue uniforms designed by Glenna.

Dan: I remember the stars of that championship team – Steve Buxton, Jerry Burton, and others. Great fun to watch.

Lee: I especially remember James Jenkins. What a game!

Perry Ann: When was the rule made that players could not touch the rim of the hoop? Now they hang on it like monkeys.

Fred: I don’t know when that rule was changed. We were talking about Wilt Chamberlain. Some of you may have read his book. You may not know that he held the high jump record at KU for many years.

Skip: He lived in the dorm on top of a hill and used to shoot out the window. No one bothered him because he was so essential to the school. His book goes into detail about his accomplishments, racy and otherwise.

Dan’s Wrap-Up

Has anyone attended a March Madness game? (Answer: No). I have been to seven or eight. Tickets are hard to get. You have to apply a year in advance and then participate in a lottery. It was easier to get a seat at games in New Orleans, because of the big arena.

If you are interested, how did you get interested in basketball?

Jane: Going to East High games! 

Skip: There were always free tickets in college. Ladies were there and it was free, so I went. 

Marilyn:  My dad put up a hoop for me on the garage and taught me how to shoot and dribble. At East High, being in Pep Club and rooting with the cheerleaders at games was really fun. And I learned a lot about basketball. We also got to watch some Shockers games and they were very exciting.

Dan: My dad took me to the Forum for games. I remember seeing Cleo Littleton playing for WU.

Fred thanked Dan for moderating. In appreciation for the opportunity, Dan showed off his KU t-shirt while Jane and Skip showed off their Jayhawk caps. Perry shared her St. Patrick’s Day t-shirt. 

At our next Zoom on April 20 at 2 p.m., Glenna Stearman Park will moderate a session on aging, health, and fitness. We will send out an article in advance about how old you are. Not your chronological age, 80-something, but how old you are in your head, metabolic age, and the impact of health and fitness.  Did you know our class has an expert on reverse aging? It could happen to you….