A Winning Team

Remember the March Madness tournament of 1998? Two teams were down to the final seconds of what should have been a blow-out game – Valparaiso University and Ole Miss. Valparaiso was a 13-seed team, while Ole Miss was the obvious favorite, being a 4-seed team. Despite the fact that Ole Miss was clearly the darling team, there was a surprising turn of events.

Ole Miss held the lead at 69 – Valparaiso trailing by 2 points. Being 94 feet from their basket, with only 2.5 seconds left on the clock, Valparaiso University’s Jamie Sykes in-bounded the ball to Bill Jenkins. Jenkins quickly passed the ball off to Bryce Drew. Just as time expired, Drew released the ball from his hands. The ball traveled 23 feet and swished into the basket, declaring Valparaiso the winner and the Cinderella Team of March Madness 1998.

You can go even further back to March Madness of 1979 when Indiana State University took on Arkansas. With the game tied at 81 and next to no time left on the clock, the right-handed Miracle Man Bob Heaton of Indiana State University pushed his team on to victory by sinking a last second shot with his left hand. This win allowed Indiana State to make it to the final four and ultimately to the championship game.

Both of these events are memorable! Each of us wants to be a part of the winning team – whether it’s in the capacity of recruiter, player or spectator, we all want to walk away victorious!