Photo: Tim Barnwell
Legislative News by Nelda Holder –
Basketball.
Yep.
That’s just about all that’s been on my mind and a lot of others around me for the past week and more. And it’s been just what we needed.
I mean, I wore the same clothes when the NC State University women played their three amazing NCAA tournament games (Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, Final Four) before the live crowds and gazillion television fans. I wore the same “uniform” for the first two rounds with the NC State men—but didn’t want to jinx them in their Final Four moment after the ladies had lost, so I created a different fan uniform. It didn’t work, but at least I tried.
And then I got up this very Sunday morning—the “day after” the State men stalled out in the top four, like the women before them—and the news was covered with interviews with these amazing young men and women who talked about what their college basketball experiences had meant to them. And I saw the fineness of their trust in each other and their loyalty to that bond. And it just plain made me so proud.
I am (mumble mumble) years old, and I played basketball back in an era when women were only allowed to play “half-court,” being too frail (ostensibly) to run up and down the entire length of the gymnasium, especially for up to two hours of game time. And just LOOK at ’em now!
But before there was college women’s basketball in my part of the world, I honed my love for the game by listening at night to the NC State men’s games on the radio (there was, gasp!, no television), and the drone of the announcers backed up by the roar of the crowd is still music to my ears.
My mom, dad, and I were the State fans in the house. My older brother foolishly favored Carolina (UNC). I remained loyal and eventually graduated from NC State University. Then I moved away for a while (including a long stint in beloved Asheville), and when I returned to Raleigh there were granddaughters to…
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