March 30, 1998
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) – When it comes to celebrating, Kentucky basketball fansare experts.
So when the Wildcats beat Utah 78-69 in Monday night’s national title game,thousands of fans flooded the streets of downtown Lexington waving flags,jumping on the hoods of slow-moving cars and shouting their never-ending lovefor their team.
“We’re celebrating until tomorrow evening!” Kentucky student Jason Groneckscreamed.
Several hundred police officers in riot gear lined Euclid and Woodlandavenues downtown and stood so still that one Kentucky fan had to ask whetherthey were rooting for Utah.
Police seemed to be the only people not partaking in the madness.
“I’m absolutely amazed!” said Ashelea McMillen, sporting her Wildcat-bluelipstick.
“They’re the bomb, baby!,” Katie Peake screamed. “We did it!”
Down by 10 at halftime, most fans watching the game never lost hope. Theyremembered comeback victories over Duke and Stanford earlier in the tournament.
The team would bounce back in this one, too – Kentucky fans just knew it.
“Oh, they’ll come back,” said Kevin Beall. “This team’s nickname is `TheUnsinkables’ – just like the Titanic.”
The plan was so well-scripted earlier Monday that everyone from T-shirtvendors to fans hunting for prime seats at crowded sports bars seemed to knowexactly where they would be before, during and after Kentucky’s second nationaltitle in the last three years.
Twins Jeremy and John Foster played gin rummy at a table inside Steak FestBar and Grill, passing time before the game that would start six hours later.
“I’ve called all of my friends and told them we’ve got a table,” saidJeremy, a UK junior. “We’re going to stay here until the party afterwards.It’s the only time in Lexington you can have an open container and not getcaught.”
The Lexington police department learned its lesson two years ago when extraofficers were put “on call” just in case the crowds got out of control.
Lt. Gerald Ross said about 150 officers were called in, but that stilldidn’t stop members of the crowd from turning over a television crew’s van andusing the officers as targets for their empty beer bottles.
But that was in 1996, when officers were still somewhat naive about wherethe wildest parties would be and how to calm them. Now, after three years ofpractice, police believe they have the hang of it.
More than 300 officers were scheduled to be on active duty during and afterMonday night’s game. Some were staked out with video cameras on the roofs ofvarious downtown businesses, hoping to catch would-be looters in the act.Downtown streets were to be blocked off by halftime.
“As long as it is non-violent in nature, we will let them vent orcelebrate,” Ross said. “I think we’re prepared for them.”
Managers at the two student bookstores in town had their fingers crossed fora Kentucky championship. They knew that would mean huge T-shirt sales Tuesdaymorning.
“We’re selling out of our Final Four T-shirts, so we need a nationaltitle,” said Kennedy Book Store manager Carol Behr, who had 27 differentversions of the championship shirt ready to go for Tuesday if the Wildcats won.
The chaos was not limited to Lexington. In Bowling Green in centralKentucky, for $5 fans could watch the game on a 24-foot screen in the theaterat the National Corvette Museum.
“You should hear the noise level in here: It’s incredible,” Liz Hill saidmoments after the game ended. Her voice hoarse from cheering, the museumofficial said the 50 or so people who assembled for the game never heard thefinal buzzer.
“By then we had already been up and screaming,” Hill said.
At O’Charley’s in Paducah in western Kentucky, rowdy fans chanted “We’renumber one!” after the Wildcats sealed the victory.
