"We" won.

So much for my plan to do this every day. I wish I were more disciplined. I've been working steadily lately, which should provide more interesting fodder for this endeavor. If only I could push myself to do it.

Last night my alma mater won the NCAA basketball tournament. Yay! I do not know any of the team's coaches or players. My only connection to them is that the name on the front of their jerseys matches the one on my college degree. Why can complete strangers elate me simply by putting an orange ball through a hoop while wearing the same colors sported by my favorite baseball cap?

Fandom is a strange thing, isn't it? I think it was Mitch Albom who noted that the era of free agency in pro sports left their teams' fans "rooting for uniforms." Isn't that what college basketball fans have always done? Even while I attended college I didn't know any of the players. Still the outcomes of their games affected the mood of the entire campus.

Someone suggested to me today that the players on the team represent the school so and, by extention, me as an alumnus. I don't think so. That doesn't explain why people who never went to a given school can grow such a strong rooting interest in its sports teams.

I'm sure a psychologist could explain it. It must have something to do with a need to belong to a community and how a sports team gives us a rallying point around which we can unite. There are probably territorial and tribal aspects to this, too. We root for teams based near us, again regardless of whether any of their players come from or live in the town. If "our" team wins, our city is better than the suckers who rooted for that loser across the state. Hah. Hah.

All I know is that it felt good watching the final seconds tick off the clock. I threw my arms in the air and pumped my fists in joint celebration hundreds of miles away from either the game site or my old campus. I had nothing to do with it. But I'm glad we won.