To this day, I still have autographs from the 1965 team, Hetzel's senior year. I remember well seeing Charlie Scott knock Davidson out of the 1969 Eastern regionals. It was an ethereal space we occupied, my chums & I in Davidson back then. We knew it was remarkable that the 1000-male college could field a top-notch program, but it was all we really knew. By the time I matriculated as a Davidson freshman in 1974, those heady times were only a memory. In my four years at Davidson, the team won a total of 26 games.
It was quite a letdown, & it was hard taking in games knowing how far & how quickly the Wildcats had fallen from their pinnacle.

Over the last several years, it has been a delight to see Davidson build & hone a high caliber team. Davidson's domination of the Southern Conference has been on-going & resulted in a series of post-season games. Once again, I was following Davidson religiously, watching those games I could on TV, listening to others via internet radio, or simply reading about them in the sports pages. I felt like the team should have been ranked last season already, especially with its very narrow loss to a strong Maryland team.
This year the early & narrow losses to UNC, Duke, & UCLA were disappointing but encouraging all the same. I knew we were close but would we get over the hump? I actually found the wins against Elon & UNC-G most promising.
It would have been easy for Davidson to fold in either one of those games & settle for an 18-2 or a 19-1 conference record, but the team hung tough & did not quit. That determination & team morale was essential for the NCAA tourney run. The Wildcats believed in themselves & never said die. That, I think, is what made this such an appealing story -- here we had a collection of non-McDonald's All-Americans who worked very hard under the direction of a talented & devoted coaching staff & got the job done.
Bravo!

In some ways, this year's experience surpasses the Davidson of the 1960s -- for one thing, Davidson actually has fewer males to draw from than then.
When Davidson made its 1968 & 1969 runs to the regional finals, Davidson had been ranked for most of the time since 1963 -- as a Top 10 team one might even expect they'd make it that far. In any event, I thank you all for the exhilarating run & wish I could be there in Belk Arena on Tuesday to yell my cheers & offer my thanks. I never expected to be able to re-live this vaunted aspect of my youth. In closing, I'll note that my seventh-grade daughters --the same age I was in 1969-- were also consumed by Davidson-mania. One afternoon before the Wisconsin game they took their sidewalk chalk to the street & in huge, bold letters scrawled "Sweet 16 -- Go Davidson!" & then added the names of coach & players. Neighbors voiced their approval. Yes indeed, go Davidson!

Best wishes,

Eric G. Wruck, '78

Bexley, Ohio