Morehead celebrates after big win brings national spotlight to school
MOREHEAD — It takes something big to make a sports bar staff forget to turn on a University of Kentucky basketball game. On Thursday, it happened.
The Buffalo Wild Wings crowd erupted so completely after Morehead State University upset the University of Louisville, that no one seemed to care that another Kentucky team — THE other Kentucky team — was still playing.
"No one even asked us to turn it on," said the restaurant's general manager, Shane Bancroft. The city exploded with screams and car horns, he said. Fans jumped onto the bar and tables and chairs. The Eagles had brought down Rick Pitino's big, bad Cardinals and soared into Cinderella-story fables across the country.
What's more, part way through the game, word came back to Morehead that the Rowan County High School Vikings had won their first Sweet Sixteen tournament game in history. (The Vikings won again Friday, 64-47 over Wayne County, to advance to the semifinals.)
"We're all walking on air today," Morehead-Rowan County Chamber of Commerce executive director Tracy C. Williams said Friday.
She and friends watched the Rowan County High School game in Lexington on Thursday and then raced to a TV to finish the Morehead State game. She was on her way back to Rupp Arena on Friday afternoon, along with many other Rowan Countians; offices were empty as they revelled in the spotlight.
An NCAA success story benefits the community as well as the school, Williams said. She gets to sell the city to people across the country.
"We have a little bit of everything here," she said. "Great schools, the university, the lake ...
"The attention that we're getting is that more people nationally are saying 'Where is Morehead?' "
University officials swelled with pride and said there was never a doubt. The college bookstore on Friday ordered T-shirts touting the victory and started selling out of NCAA tournament gear.
It also sold Kenneth Faried jerseys. The New York Times and other news organizations profiled him as the nation's top rebounder earlier this week.
"This is the most excitement we've ever had in a short period," said Morehead State Assistant Vice President Bill Redwine, who is also vice chairman of the Rowan County school board.
He was leaving work Friday afternoon to watch the high school team take on Wayne County in the second round of the Sweet Sixteen.
Redwine said he had an e-mail from one of Morehead's ROTC instructors, an Army colonel, who said he was able to watch the game in Kuwait.
Although Morehead's spring break starts next week and student activity was slow Friday, alumni were plotting a party at Buffalo Wild Wings for Saturday's 5:15 p.m. game against Richmond, which upset Vanderbilt on Thursday.
Morehead State's win wasn't so much an upset, President Wayne Andrews said over the phone from Denver on Friday.
The experts who "purportedly know so much" might call it that, but the Eagles went in confident, and supported by "a lot of pride out there among our 50,000 alumni."
"I did think we were going to win," Andrews said. "This team at MSU this year was ready for this game."
This story was originally published March 19, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Morehead celebrates after big win brings national spotlight to school ."