Soon after Michigan State’s NCAA Tournament fate was announced Sunday afternoon, Chris Durso got a frantically happy phone call from an overjoyed alum.
“Is there something wrong with me?” she asked.
“You’re just passionate about basketball,” replied Durso, the MSU Colorado alumni chapter president. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with you.”
She was not alone. When the eight teams sent to Denver for the NCAA Tournament were revealed Sunday, there were thousands of overjoyed area alums. And there are a lot of Notre Dame, Washington State, Pittsburgh and Michigan State fans in Colorado — nearly 10,000, most living in the Denver area.
Michigan State’s alums — the Colorado Spartans, as they call themselves — have the largest active base of the teams sent here, with around 4,000 alums, notably 9News sports anchor Drew Soicher. Their party time begins tonight with a pep rally at the Adam’s Mark Hotel, where Michigan State is staying.
“We are very excited,” said Durso. “The fact that they lost to Wisconsin in the Big Ten Tournament turned out to be a plus for us.”
Pittsburgh, whose coach is Jamie Dixon, plays its tournament opener Thursday at the Pepsi Center against Oral Roberts. So Pitt alums are gathering, naturally, at Dixon’s for pregame festivities.
“We thought it would be kind of fun,” Denver’s Pitt alumni representative Bruce Campbell said. “The excitement level is very high. It’s not often that we get to see Pitt in our own backyard. The excitement extends beyond the alumni to the Pittsburgh community here. As (people) know from watching Steelers-Broncos games, there are a lot of ex-Pittsburghers in the Denver area. And I know not only alumni, but Pittsburgh sports fans are going to be showing up for the games.”
Notre Dame has the second-largest alumni group in Colorado with around 3,000 members, and will be well-represented this week.
“This is really a No. 1 kind of event for us,” said Ceyl Prinster, incoming president of the national Notre Dame Alumni Association. “Having the football team for a national championship, this is right up there.”
The Notre Dame men’s team hasn’t played in Denver since 1966.
“Notre Dame people, they have green blood in their veins,” Prinster said. “When something like this happens, everybody comes out to support the team.”
One of the positive effects of having a team in the NCAA Tournament is building interest in alumni chapters. Washington State has around 1,000 alums in Colorado but only 100 who could be considered active members.
“I think it’s going to help tremendously,” said WSU alumni area representative Kevin Houck, who is setting up pregame events at the downtown Old Chicago. “One of the things that I want to do is just meet people for the first time, telling them about our website, getting them on our e-mail list.”
Oral Roberts and the other teams in Denver this week — Temple, Winthrop and George Mason — either have a small alumni chapter or no organized group.
“This is a great time,” MSU’s Durso said. “(Fans) are coming out of the woodwork.”
Chris Dempsey: 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com
