'Class canceled': Duquesne professor swept up in March Madness cuts students a break

Here’s a note you won’t likely receive from your college professor — that is, unless his and your campus suddenly is in a history-making hunt for college basketball glory.

Title:

“Class Canceled due to March Madness.”

Description:

“Go celebrate. I’ll figure it out.”

The note posted to social media platform X Thursday, signed “Prof. Healy,” was from Robert Edward Healy III, a Duquesne graduate who teaches in the university’s media department and founded the Sports Information and Media major.

The post, which has gone viral, is one more indication of the fever enveloping the Catholic campus, which Thursday won its first NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament game since 1969.

#MarchMadness #ShooShooRahRah pic.twitter.com/ctfq73QszG

— Robert Edward Healy, III (@blufftalk) March 21, 2024

The Dukes, an 11 seed in the East, upset No. 6 seed Brigham Young University Thursday, 71-67, in Omaha, Neb. The Dukes play in the next round Saturday against No. 3 seed Illinois.

Healy, 40, told TribLive Friday morning that he initially planned for his students to attend his 3:05 p.m. media and sports class as usual on Thursday, since the BYU game would already have ended or would be close to it.

But then he saw the passion that swept the campus of 8,200 students as the storybook March Madness run continued. Hundreds of students and employees in the Power Center on campus reveled and cheered, finally exploding with delight as the clock reached zero.

“When I witnessed the euphoria and just the excitement that the student body had after finally getting an NCAA tournament win after more than 50 years, I felt there was no way I could make them sit down and listen to a lecture,” Healy said.

So he stayed up until 1 a.m. Friday, adjusting the class syllabus to ensure he could cover the material necessary for the course despite losing a class session.

In an academic program intertwined with the athletics industry, the upset and Duquesne’s reaction to it have relevance to what he teaches, Healy said. A number of his students already would likely have missed the class as they were working at PPG Arena for the NCAA First Round Games, hosted by Duquesne, or covering the Duquesne matchup in Omaha.

“You only get to experience stuff like this maybe once in your lifetime,” he said. “It is actually a part of the college experience.”

He said an already emotional March run is made more so since the school’s revered coach Keith Dambrot is retiring after this season. Dambrot’s wife has been battling breast cancer.

“That team is ready to run through a wall for coach Dambrot,” Healy said. “They are playing with house money, they have nothing to lose, and we’re picking up on this on campus.”

Healy is a Duquesne and Baldwin High School football alumnus who, even as he pursues a career in academics, has maintained his pursuit of sports.

In 2022, he captured first place in the discus throw and shot put competition at the 2022 Donate Life Transplant Games of America. Then 39, he crushed records among living donors and all-time donors in both events.

He also posted the longest overall jump and was a medalist in the 100-meter dash, softball throw and pickleball events.

Duquesne President Ken Gormley said Monday that professors would no doubt be tempted to show students maximum flexibility on campus as far as class schedules on game day.

Gormley himself has been caught up in the frenzy. He was in the Barclays Center in Brooklyn for the Atlantic 10 Championship win over Virginia Commonwealth University.

Initially, he expected business on the Uptown campus would mean he could not travel with the team to Omaha. But a schedule change put him on a plane to Omaha for Thursday’s game.

Healy said he knew his post would likely get some attention, but just how much of a reaction it has received “is pretty cool.”