Butler March Madness @ 30,000 Feet: The Bulldogs Provided it...and their Pitching is Improving Too

It was a long Trade Show in Orlando. 

It was a great trade show, and a great time.

But it was a long trade show in Orlando. 

The Best part?  

My fellow sales reps and I squeezed in "The Hulk" roller coaster between our long hours at the booth, rote repetition of new product information, and the never ending battle of Man vs. Himself trying to end the constant consumption of our booth’s Hershey Kisses.

If you know that end of "Trade Show Week” Feeling…

You know the absolute exhaustion. 

You know the hangover. 

You know the need and ability to sleep absolutely anywhere.

I had stumbled into Orlando International Airport several hours before my 8:42pm Flight home.  I was trying to go home early on a stand by flight, and avoid a lay-over in Atlanta. 

I knew I was going against all logic thinking there would be an open seat on a direct, Spring Break week, flight home to Dallas.  

But my outlook was, I could wait at the Hotel, or I could wait at the Airport for a Spring Break miracle.   

Well, odds and logic won out, and I missed any chance of an early Flight, as everybody showed up to go home after Spring Break. 

Imagine that.

I had no way of knowing that only hours later I would be so grateful that my Stand By wishes never came true. 

Because at the time, all I could think of was my long lay-over in Atlanta, and worse yet, that I now had 3+ hours to kill in the Orlando airport.

So, I headed to the airport’s Outback Steakhouse Bar, and there I found all the obligatory Airport Bar staples.

Hour 1:

March Madness on TV?  Check.

Greasy Awesome Blossom and a “Hair of the Dog” Bud Light?  Check.

2 guys next to me, hitting on two girls, and not catching the “go-away” clues?  Check.

Hour 2:

Scotch Taping Expense Report Receipts?  Check.

Lost Hampton Inn Receipt?  Check.

“I went to College for this?” Check.

Hour 3  

I wrapped up work and dinner at The Outback Bar while “keeping an eye” on the March Madness basketball. 

I have to admit that during the early games of “The Big Dance”, and the older I get, I do a lot more of this, “just keeping an eye” on early tournament games. 

I have even said out loud, in what I now know was just a getting older, getting very cynical, attitude when I said...

"Call me when there’s 2 minutes left in the game, or 4 teams left in the tournament."  

However, as the Awesome Blossom got less awesome, and the guys hitting on the 2 girls got more desperate, I realized there was a different bar just down the way with a crowd doing much more than just “keeping an eye” on the College Hoops action.

With each piercing roar that literally echoed through the gates of MCO, I noticed these cheers coincided with anything positive that happened for the Butler Bulldogs as they battled the #1 Seed Pitt Panthers for a birth into the Sweet 16.

And as I walked towards my gate and near the bar in question, I noticed I was right. 

It was a Butler crowd.  And the folks in Butler T-Shirts and Caps were now 3 people deep outside this airport bar and around the HDTVs inside.

I stopped and watched a hoop or two over the shoulders of the Bulldog Faithful, and I even chuckled at the fact that they were now loudly chanting the arena favorite, “Defense! Defense!” each time the Bulldogs got back into their man to man.  But it was still just the first half, and while I thought it was pretty cool to see these young kids cheering for their school,  I knew I wanted to get on my plane early. 

Could I have been any more like the cliched, no fun having, approaching 40 dude? 

Little did I know, that just an hour later, I would be right in between this same Butler crowd, feeling 22 yrs old one more time, and falling in love with March Madness, every dribble of it, all over again.

Obviously, without this foresight, I headed to my gate and I boarded my plane well before it was scheduled to take off.

Only minutes before going wheels up, on what seemed to be an empty flight, the aisles were absolutely bum rushed with 20 or more young laughing passengers trying to find their seats. 

And wouldn’t you know it…It was The Butler Faithful.

These same kids had stayed in front of the Gate 91 Bar TVs as long as they possibly could before our Flight took off.

And as they wrestled each other for window seats, making cracks about each other’s, well, everything,…traveling habits, luggage, clothes, and tastes of music etc.  I was brought back to those hilarious, “nothing’s sacred” days, just as I read all their caps and  T-Shirts a little bit closer. 

That’s when it hit me, and when it was finally confirmed, as I saw the freshly used Catcher’s mitts going into the overhead bins just above me.

This “Butler Faithful” crowd? 

This was the Butler Bulldog Baseball Team.

I learned they had just finished a 7 game Florida road trip. And the second thing I learned as they took their seats right in front, and right behind me, was that this Butler Baseball Team was in a palpable panic.

Our flight was obviously scheduled to depart right in the middle of the 2^nd half of what was quickly becoming another March Madness Classic for their Bulldog Basketball Brethren.

Now, before this flight, I might have accused other writers of over dramatizing the relationship between 2 different athletic teams from the same school by referring to them as Brothers.  However, by the time we landed, I would learn that if you are a Butler Bulldog, it didn’t matter if your athletic expertise was “pulling one, & going yard”, or “pulling up, & going for 3.” 

You were linked, quite literally, as Butler Bulldog Brothers.

Right after our flight attendant’s instructions about how to save your life were completed, the much more important issue of which Sirius Satellite Radio Station the Butler-Pitt game was on took precedence.

“Channel 144!” I think is what one of the ballplayers yelled.

And immediately, these tech savvy pitchers and infielders alike rustled madly, plugging slick headphones and cool looking ear buds into their armrests...the same place slick cocktails and not so cool looking cigarette butts went before they were born.

Either way, the whole Butler Baseball Team, one-third of the passengers on this flight, were now dialed into the live broadcast of the Butler-Pitt game.

Yours truly was not so lucky.  I was without headphones.

But what I witnessed in just watching the Butler Baseball Team as they listened to the radio broadcast, will be one of the most unforgettable March Madness memories I ever have.   

I will always see their 20ish year old faces as they jumped up, down, on each other, into the aisles, and into the beverage carts.  And I will always hear the screaming, gasping, and cheering that went on during this back and forth “WTF” ending, that was Butler vs. Pitt. 

(To use one of their generation’s terms, of course.)

Highlights from the last 5 seconds of Butler vs. Pitt have been replayed over and over by now.  And so, you no doubt are aware that Butler’s Hoop Dreams, within these final 5 seconds quickly became a nightmare.

And at this point "The Boys of Summer" and their March Madness at 30,000 ft. fell silent

And I mean, deadly silent.

I heard one, grunted, defeated, whisper…“We just lost.”

You would have thought every Butler Baseball player on the plane had just struck out at the same time in the College World Series.  I was sick to my stomach watching the pain in these Athlete’s faces, as I saw them slouch in their seats, and as I was suddenly hearing absolutely nothing. 

This was going to be the quietest flight ever now.  Just the exact type of flight I was hoping for an hour ago, but now, it was for all the wrong reasons.

And then…

It was as if the Pilot had just announced into the Butler Baseball Team’s headphones that our Flight would not be crashing into a mountain, as these same Sad Bulldog Eyes opened wider than the yellow oxygen masks I’d swear were about to drop from the compartments above.

Not having a clue as to what they just heard, all I heard was the Bulldog Baseball Team blurting out…

”IT’S NOT OVER!!”……”THEY FOULED HIM!!”….”THEY FOULED HOWARD???!!”

Then there was an excruciating long pause in the action again, and the silence was back.

But this was that exciting, anticipatory, nervous, type of silence. 

And with the hindsight of actual highlights, I now know this new cabin pressure coincided with Butler’s star forward Matt Howard, stepping to the line to shoot 2 Free throws.

The score was tied 70-70. 
And there was only .08 seconds left on the game clock.

And as Howard’s feet were on the ground behind the charity stripe, what the Butler Baseball Team was doing simultaneously in the sky seemed like it was pulled right out of Hoosiers.

It started when Sophomore first baseman Jack Dillon, leaned into the aisle and yelled back to his Teammates,

“Lock it up boys.”

And with that simple instruction, the entire Butler Baseball Team locked arms at the elbows, and across the aisles, of Airtran Flight 856.

For the next several minutes their arms were clasped, their heads were down, and their eyes were closed.

And there was not a sound.

And just a moment later, their silence and their linked arms were abruptly broken up as absolute pandemonium and jubilation erupted throughout the Plane. 

The Butler Basketball team had done it. 

They Won the Game.

They had beaten Pitt.

They had knocked out a #1 seed.

And amongst the dumbfounded excitement, man hugs, huge smiles, and spilled cokes, I realized the Butler Baseball Team had done it too. 

However, instead of knocking out one seed, they had replanted one.

A seed that was immediately growing in me again, that will never die like it had, and that will forever be the lifetime reminder about School Spirit, Athletic Brotherhood, and what March Madness is truly all about.

So, needless to say, I am definitely pulling for Butler this Saturday. 

But really, I’m just hoping their double header against Milwaukee is rained out, so they can actually watch their Bulldog Brothers play in the Final Four.