{"id":55607,"date":"2017-03-14T13:37:52","date_gmt":"2017-03-14T18:37:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=55607"},"modified":"2017-03-14T13:37:52","modified_gmt":"2017-03-14T18:37:52","slug":"weve-been-waiting-for-this-for-a-long-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/weve-been-waiting-for-this-for-a-long-time\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;We&#8217;ve been waiting for this for a long time&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Elan Kane<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"dropcap\">Lynn Hull made sure to get to Welsh-Ryan Arena early Sunday to get good seats. She wanted to enjoy the hoopla surrounding the announcement that the Northwestern men\u2019s basketball team had made its first NCAA basketball tournament in school history. When\u00a0she went to find a seat, though, she was directed towards the back section.<\/p>\n<p>It surprised Hull, a Northwestern season-ticket holder for 28 years. She complained to an event staff member that the team owed her some loyalty after she had given years of hers. After some discussion, she was allowed to sit closer to the court.<\/p>\n<p>Northwestern isn\u2019t used to having a mad scramble for seats. Then again, it never had an event like this since the NCAA tournament was established in 1939.<\/p>\n<p>That history created a sense of excitement and emotion among both longtime and recent fans, including Hull.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Northwestern Selection Sunday Reaction\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/208357325?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a new enthusiasm with Chris Collins as the coach and the young players and it\u2019s been really fun to see,\u201d Hull said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been waiting for this for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Approximately 2,000 fans attended the announcement, which featured speeches from Collins, Northwestern president Morton Schapiro and what seemed like hours of anticipation as fans waited for the school\u2019s name to be called during the NCAA Tournament selection show.<\/p>\n<p>Despite final exams looming, plenty of students filled the seats.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[There were] hard years of just missing it, going to the NIT, it\u2019s been tough,\u201d said Andrew Scherl, a freshman and a lifelong Northwestern fan. \u201cGetting a lot of dirt and people talking about Northwestern saying we\u2019re not a sports team, we\u2019re not a great athletics school, it\u2019s all coming together right now and it\u2019s great to be able to give that right back to my friends and say, \u2018Yeah, we are.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jake Schaefer, a senior, attended games throughout his time at the school and gained popularity because of the\u00a0purple mask and hat he wears in the student section.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s really for everybody who has watched the game for decades and this is the culmination of breaking that Cubs-like streak,\u201d Schaefer said.<\/p>\n<p>Darryl Ford, an usher who has worked at Welsh-Ryan for 21 years, also compared the streak to the recent Cubs World Series win, adding that the wait has been worth it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel a little satisfaction right now that they\u2019ve actually made it this far,\u201d Ford said. \u201cIn all [my] 21 years, there have been some great teams here and they\u2019ve been so close. But to finally make it, this is really exciting.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>For Hull, the season\u2019s success has been reflected in the crowd.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis was the first year that there was more purple than red at the Indiana-Northwestern game,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s [been] really fun.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"featurecaption\">Photo at top: Fans in Welsh-Ryan Arena await the announcement that the Northwestern men&#8217;s basketball team had qualified for the NCAA Tournament. (Elan Kane\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Elan Kane Lynn Hull made sure to get to Welsh-Ryan Arena early Sunday to get good seats. She wanted to enjoy the hoopla surrounding the announcement that the Northwestern men\u2019s basketball team had made its first NCAA basketball tournament in school history. When\u00a0she went to find a seat, though, she was directed towards the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":371,"featured_media":55609,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,3516],"tags":[2531,752,3828,3834],"class_list":["post-55607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-winter-2017","tag-ncaa-tournament","tag-northwestern-basketball","tag-selection-sunday","tag-tournament"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>&#039;We&#039;ve been waiting for this for a long time&#039; - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/weve-been-waiting-for-this-for-a-long-time\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&#039;We&#039;ve been waiting for this for a long time&#039; - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Elan Kane Lynn Hull made sure to get to Welsh-Ryan Arena early Sunday to get good seats. 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