'We get the spotlight': Duquesne fans revel in long-awaited March Madness victory

It’s a good thing for Duquesne University’s basketball team that alum Ed Wirth wore his class ring Thursday at Mike’s Beer Bar on Pittsburgh’s North Side — as did the rest of his table.

And that they ordered pork nachos, like they’d done while watching Duquesne muscle its way through the Atlantic 10 Tournament toward an unlikely March Madness berth.

They didn’t forget the assigned seating either.

“Some days I forget to wear (the ring), and we lose those days,” Wirth said. “I didn’t forget to wear it today.”

Sports fans are a superstitious bunch — none more than Wirth, a Cranberry resident. His rules and rituals seemed to have worked.

Alongside more than 100 fans who packed Mike’s on Thursday afternoon, Wirth watched the Dukes make history.

Despite some late-game scares, Duquesne beat Brigham Young University, 71-67, to notch its first NCAA tournament win since 1969. The team last appeared in the tournament in 1977, falling in the first round.

The tournament drought made for a high-stakes environment, with fans’ emotions rising and falling with each Dukes jump shot.

Generations of Duquesne graduates have waited for their alma mater to return to the Big Dance.

Alan Yee, a 1973 Duquesne graduate and Eighty Four resident, wasn’t sure he’d ever see the Dukes get a crack at the tournament again.

“I thought I would die before I saw us ever get into the tournament,” Yee said. “And I think I’ll die again if we win.”

While the Dukes led comfortably for most of the game, BYU brought it within a basket multiple times in the second half — even tying it once at 60-60 — quieting an otherwise lively crowd at the watch party. For some fans, it brought back four-day-old memories of Duquesne’s near-collapse against Virginia Commonwealth University in the A10 Tournament finals.

“We’ve had a tendency to underperform in the second half, but hopefully we hang on,” Alex Cunningham of Mt. Lebanon said as he watched the game.

Moments later, standout guard Dae Dae Grant sealed the game with a pair of free throws as “Go Dukes!” chants spread across the bar.

The Dukes have battled through an up-and-down season. After losing their first five games, the team got a boost from someone who remembers Duquesne’s last March Madness appearance quite well.

Baron “B.B.” Flenory, an all-time great of Dukes basketball and a Valley High School graduate originally from New Kensington, said head coach Keith Dambrot brought him in to give the team a pep talk at that critical juncture. He called on the team to “play for each other” and strive for the tournament, “where anything can happen.”

“I’m so ecstatic,” Flenory said after the win. “It wasn’t because of me, I’m sure, but the season did turn around.”

Beyond basketball, Duquesne’s tournament appearance has created opportunities to rekindle alumni connections.

Alum Monica Manning of Ross Township said she ran into former classmates at Mike’s she hasn’t seen for more than 20 years.

Watch parties sprung up throughout the country, from Naples, Fla., to Buffalo, N.Y., according to Bob Woodside, Duquesne’s director of advancement communications. As part of that role, Woodside handles alumni engagement and giving.

“The alumni have always been faithful,” Woodside said, sporting a Dukes pep rally cap from the 1980s. “I’ve never seen anything like this in terms of the outpouring of support.”

Even Pittsburgh residents without direct ties to Duquesne have rallied around the school’s tournament run — a rarity in a city where the Dukes compete for attention with three professional sports teams and the much-larger University of Pittsburgh.

Yee recalled that Duquesne basketball used to be one of the city’s premier sports teams. Before Yee even enrolled at the university, he was a fan, thanks to the golden-era teams of the late 1960s.

“That’s when the Eastern 8 tournament was here in Pittsburgh — and Duquesne was king and Pitt was not,” Yee said. “For once, we get the spotlight in Pittsburgh all for ourselves.”

That spotlight could revive a flagging basketball culture at the university, in the view of Dave Hornyak, a 1972 graduate from West Mifflin. He remembers packed, high-intensity games as a student but hasn’t seen the same energy in recent years.

“It’s different after all those years,” Hornyak said. “Now, you go to the game, they’ve got two sections of students.”

While fans reveled in the team’s victory, they didn’t forget the most important rule of March Madness: Survive and advance.

Moments after the final buzzer sounded and Mike’s erupted into cheers and rallying cries, Joshua Manning made a declaration.

“We’re going to the Sweet 16,” he said.