You did all the work and those of us who were lucky enough to cheer you on were simply the very grateful recipients of unprecedented admiration for our alma mater. Yes, the games you played were fabulous and gutsy, and the crowds were faithful and delightfully rowdy. But if I were to create a “shining moments” video for you from this tournament run, I’d be sure to capture some of the following off-the-court highlights, too:
• I hope you won’t forget the UNC pep band playing SWEET CAROLINE in tribute to you and to your fabulous coaches as you entered the RBC Arena after you defeated mighty Georgetown.
• Did you know that after the Georgetown game, a Winston-Salem disc jockey referred to an upcoming visit to North Carolina by George Clooney and Barack Obama and quickly added “Now if only we could get the Davidson Wildcats to show up, then we would REALLY have something special!”
• Perhaps you did not hear from the staff at your Detroit hotel (who were all proudly sporting our Witness/Wildcats t-shirts!) how impressed they were with your good manners, your approachability, your humility. We heard that about you from the housekeepers, the front desk staff, the hotel manager and the waiters and waitresses...over and over. (Take a bow, parents!)
• Hopefully you noted the expressions of pure joy on the faces of the children (and adults!) who asked for your autographs, who waited patiently in the arena and hotel lobbies for a chance to shake your hands, surprised that you did not sneak in and out using a secret entrance, fans of all ages who were thrilled when you stopped to talk to them or pose for pictures.
• What does it say about a team when one of the fans who traveled to Detroit to watch you was your teammate Bryant Barr’s fourth grade teacher...from Maine?!
• I wish you could have seen the tears in the eyes of a member of the University of Kansas Board of Trustees as she told me how moved she and her colleagues were that Davidson students were able to be in Detroit to support the Wildcats. In my video, Traci, Linda, and Wendy would be featured for their tireless and selfless efforts, working almost around the clock to make that trip possible.
• Did you know that a 92 year old man with family ties to Davidson was calling everyone he knew Sunday night to be sure they were watching us humble Kansas?
• Who would have guessed that the pensive, unassuming, sweatshirted Davidson student relaxing with his parents and family in the hotel lounge after the Kansas game, listening quietly to Dick Vitale laud the basketball prowess of Steph Curry and label him one of college basketball’s greatest players was, in fact, Steph Curry?
• Have you heard that the morning after the Kansas game, legions of employees and travelers in airports across the country would notice our Davidson shirts and congratulate us (mere alums and fans) on a terrific season and express regret that we weren’t going to San Antonio, that they sure were pulling for us? It was STILL a great day to be a Wildcat!
• How will our school be impacted by people like the gentleman who stopped me in the airport to say, “Wow...how about that Davidson!” and then went on to tell me that he coaches high school runners in Massachusetts and has sent lots of them to Williams and to Ivy League schools but now is going to be sure they consider Davidson first?
Yes, your intensity, your commitment, and your skill all contributed to a basketball season that was one for the ages but please also accept my heartfelt thanks for how admirably you represented Davidson College and made your mark on March Madness with these memorable, if unheralded, “shining moments.”

With gratitude and best wishes to each of you!

Carol Connor Willingham
Class of 1977