Final Four Weekend always brings back a rush of memories for me.
You’d think it would be all rainbows and unicorns to follow my beloved alma mater twice to the NCAA Championship weekend.
Some of it was.
The first trip was early in my career, as a student of The Daily Illini, covering the best basketball team ever to wear Illinois orange and blue. The Flyin’ Illini were, without a doubt, the best team in the country in 1989.
The trip to Seattle with my DI sports writing colleagues, Phil Favorite and Jeff Ponczak, capped out a season of wild adventures traveling all over the Midwest to Big Ten campuses to cover games. Without a doubt, we had much more fun that year than I would have covering anything ever again in my newspaper career.
Road trips filled with great music, bags of candy and guys that were like brothers to me. Illinois almost always won, and the three of us would celebrate with whichever friends crashed our hotel room that night. Many times it was me and six or seven guys, but I was just happy to be there and it was always a ridiculous time. I still remember these trips like it was yesterday.
The trip to Seattle was a s*** show from the beginning. The DI had to fight the NCAA to allow me a seat courtside to cover the games.
We got the coveted photo pass, and I got on a plane with Ponz and Phil. Our luggage got sent to Alaska and didn’t make it to Seattle, so I ended up buying a Final Four t-shirt and living in it for three days. We played that Saturday against Michigan, a team we had beaten twice already that season. It was a heartbreaking end to a magical season when Illinois came a rebound or two away from making it to the title game. I was so young and so green, I made a bunch of mistakes on the trip, including missing the flight back home to the DI. That trip taught me to roll with the punches, be my own advocate and to own my mistakes.
I got some great shots of my guys: Nick, Kenny, Stephen, Kendall and Lowell, and I actually wouldn’t trade that weekend for anything, even though it was rife with errors.
That was 34 years ago this weekend.
My second Final Four photographing Illinois brought me to St. Louis in 2005. I was older, wiser, and learned how to advocate for myself.
I had to beg to go, and in spite of the most vindictive and difficult boss I ever worked for, I was given the okay for the Monday night Championship vs. North Carolina - a giant of a team that was going to be a tough game for another extremely talented Illinois squad.
It was thrilling being courtside at a Final Four Championship. I didn’t make any mistakes, but i
Illinois was defeated and I found myself super emotional while photographing in the locker room where Dee Brown was taking in the loss by himself.
That was 18 years ago this weekend.
My years as a photojournalist were exciting and heartbreaking and wonderful. The stories I told with my camera have helped me grow as a person and a photographer in so many ways. I love that I had these experiences in my journey, and that it has made me into the person and photographer I am today.
It hasn’t always been rainbows and unicorns, but it has been quite a ride.
Hope your Final Four Weekend is amazing!
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