Last weekend VCU had their 2012 homecoming basketball game versus Northeastern. Even though I didn’t attend VCU, the first VCU basketball game I went to was against the Huskies a few years ago. And I want to blog some more because I like it. Anyway it seemed like it was high time to share a few stories that have shaped my VCU fandom.
Despite growing up less than 3 miles from their home, I never stepped foot inside the VCU’s Siegel Center until early 2009. Only two years before, I sat on my parent’s couch and watched the first round of the NCAA Tournament, when VCU legend Eric Maynor hit the dagger to topple Duke, the team I had grown up cheering for.
In 2009, Robby Robinson, the voice of VCU’s Ram Radio, was in his first season and working to grow VCU’s sponsor base. Robby first contacted my co-worker Tim, and gave Tim two tickets to the home game versus Northeastern on January 27th, 2009. Tim invited me to go along. It turns out that the tickets Robby had given Tim were directly under the basket - where at our feet a few photographers jockeyed for position and behind us the student section yelled “you suck balls” at opposing players, coaches and referees. It was a close game, and had to be nearly sold out if not entirely. Eric Maynor was a senior year at the time, and Larry Sanders was emerging as one of the best big men in the league. I watched Larry from court level wave his freakishly long arms up and down to bring the crowd to its feet. Maynor got pushed out of bounds at the other end of the court almost causing a scuffle. It was incredibly loud, I was surrounded by passionate fans. I loved it immediately. And I couldn’t believe that I lived so close to such an incredible college basketball atmosphere and never knew about it. Somewhere in the archives of ESPNU, there is evidence of me standing up and forming VCU with my arms, getting the C backwards the first few times. The Rams ended up losing, something they’ve done a fair amount to Northeastern. Tim and I went to one or two more games that season, and while our seats weren’t quite as good as the first time, the atmosphere was just as intense. Thanks to Robby and Tim, I was hooked.
In March of that year, I bought a Coreyboughtacondo two blocks from the Siegel Center. VCU lost in the tournament to UCLA the weekend after I closed on it. After leading the Rams to the tournament in two of his three years, head coach Anthony Grant split for a bigger program in a higher profile conference at Alabama. In April, VCU hired a young coach that not many people knew much about. With my passion for VCU basketball growing, I read up on this new guy -Shaka Smart - and discovered that he played his college ball at Kenyon College in Ohio, which I knew well. In my days as a college soccer player at the College of Wooster, one of my four collegiate goals was a game-winner against Kenyon. We played them each year, and I travelled there several times. Since not many in Richmond knew of these small Ohio schools, I felt like Shaka was already one of the good guys. Not long after he’d been hired, I wrote Shaka a short note that generally said “welcome to Richmond, from one NCAC athlete to another.” I signed the note “College of Wooster ‘03.” Wooster has a strong basketball program, Shaka would have played against and probably lost to us a few times.
About a month later, an envelope arrive in my work mailbox from the VCU Athletic Office. Shaka had written me back. It looked like it was a template letter that he wrote to everyone, but there were a few hand-written lines, too: “Corey, Thanks for thinking of me! I’m excited to be in Richmond. Shaka”
For a young coach to have just moved with his wife to a new city, getting to know a new university and hiring assistants and recruiting, I was blown away that he had the presence of mind to reply to a note from a random guy he’d never met before. It was unexpected. Being so close to the arena and thinking Shaka was a pretty good dude, I invested in a pair of VCU season tickets. In August of that year, I finally got to meet the man himself when we featured Shaka at a HYPE event, before he’d ever coached a college game. Robby moderated what was one of the earliest HYPE Leadership Spotlights.
I had watched nearly every VCU home game for two seasons when the Rams made their magical run to the NCAA Final Four. By now most know the story - VCU gets in by the skin of their teeth, most question their inclusion, Shaka turns all the doubters and naysayers into motivation and, led by four confident seniors, they blow teams out to reach the Final Four. Just the previous month I had watched from my seat behind the VCU bench as the Rams lost 3 straight home games, a very rare thing in the raucous Seigel Center. And to three rivals at that- ODU, JMU and George Mason. Now in March I am watching them on television, and seeing the city I love get behind them. It was surreal. I’ve told friends that watching Richmond rally around VCU during their tournament run was like loving an obscure band that no one has really heard of before. But I went to all their shows and bought all their music. Then they record a hit single and it plays on the radio. Suddenly everyone loves them. My college buddies, now located in Ohio and Connecticut, went from mocking me for following a no name team to asking me all sorts of questions. I wasn’t able to travel to any of the tournament games, but watching the Florida State and Kansas games at Home Team Grill were my favorite memories of that run. Thinking the run was over against Florida State when Joey found Bradford under the basket for a layup on the ensuing in-bounds play.
This is how it felt. People flooded out into Main Street celebrating. A few days later watching
Brandon Rozzell drain a three pointer and bark at the Kansas bench (between 13 and about 20 seconds in), as VCU beat the only remaining top seed to reach the Final Four. Sitting in Elephant Thai…that’s right, Elephant Thai, with some of my closest friends to watch the Rams fall to Butler. (Who, by the way, shot 26 free throws while VCU only shot 13.) A tough end to an amazing three weeks.
My favorite VCU story so far, happened on Sunday, August 7th, 2011. My friend and former roommate Aaron, who has been living in the Dominican Republic for the last few years, was wrapping up a summer visit in Richmond. After dinner with a group of friends, Aaron suggested we go to Krispy Kreme. At 9 p.m. on a Sunday night. So Elisabeth, Becca, Marco, Aaron and I piled in my Toyota 4 Runner and went, bought a dozen donuts and sat in Krispy Kreme, talking and laughing. We’d finished up and were watching a new batch of donuts come off the assembly line when I turned around to see Juvonte Reddic, Rob Brandenberg and Heath Houston come in with a few female friends. I said hello, told them that I was a season-ticket holder and that I was looking forward to watching them this year. They responded with gracious “thank you”s, got their donuts to-go, and I gave them a “good luck” as they walked out into the parking lot. It was the first time I’d really had an encounter with any of the players since the Final Four run. Several minutes passed and we decided that we were ready to go. We threw away our trash and walked out into the parking lot. The rest of the story, for me anyway, is a blur. As I walked out of Krispy Kreme into the parking lot, I saw Juvonte, Rob and Heath, and the girls they were with, getting out of a car. My car. And they were all laughing hysterically. I, of course, lost any coolness that I had been trying to portray in their company. “Wait, are you guys in my car?” I yelled, trying to process what was going on. Two spaces over, as it turns out, was another very similar looking Toyota 4 Runner that they had driven to Krispy Kreme. But they had gotten all the way into my car, thinking it was their own, probably tried to turn it on and sat in there trying to figure out what the problem was. Who knows how long it took them to realize they’d gotten it all wrong. I do know that we walked out at just the right time to see this whole scenario unfold. I’ve had to piece the rest together with the help of my friends because I lost my head in it all, trying to process everything, in disbelief that something so awesome was happening. Aaron had apparently left the passenger door of my car unlocked. They had unlocked the rest from that side and gotten all the way in. Rob Brandenberg got in the backseat, saw my friend Marco’s
book of fun facts sitting on the seat and said said to Ju and Heath, “Whose book is this?” I guess they aren’t as likely to have a book of fun facts in their possession. We all stood around and laughed about it for a few minutes, along with some heavy-accented guy sitting in a sedan who had witnessed the whole thing. The five in my crew and three guys who had gone to the Final Four a few months earlier. And their girls. After a few minutes we got back in our correct vehicles and went our separate ways. I later tweeted at each of them “Thanks, fellas, that was epic. Good to know we have the same taste in donuts. And 4 Runners.” Rob replied “haha, funny stuff.” Reddic and Heath both re-tweeted me and both now follow me on twitter. Maybe they’ll even see this post. I called and texted other friends that night, not able to wait to share what had happened.
It’s amazing to think of all the what ifs. What if we hadn’t gone to Krispy Kreme that night, what if we had taken some else’s car, what if they had taken a different car, what if that Aaron had locked his door like he was supposed to, what if we had come out 2 minutes later than we did. Crazy.
Now, when Rob gets a steal and bombs a three or Ju runs the length of the floor for a dunk, I will turn to whatever buddy is sitting beside me and say, “Yeah, he’s been in my car.”
I always enjoy recalling this story. It’s an original, and it was good to finally put some of this stuff in writing. I’m sure there will be many more stories to come from the team down the street.
