Eastern Washington University sophomore Paul Dillon broke out the powder blue tuxedo at Wednesday night's basketball game at the right time.
With a trip to the NCAA Tournament -- affectionately known as the Big Dance -- on the line, Dillon was ready for prime time.
"I think it's one of the best things ever," said Dillon, referring not to his tux, but the feverish atmosphere that existed at Reese Court after the Eagles beat Northern Arizona University, 71-59, to earn the Big Sky Conference's automatic berth to the tournament that starts next week.
The Eagles will find out who they play on Sunday. It's the school's first-ever trip to the tournament. Eastern had lost three consecutive Big Sky championship games, each time being denied a trip to the tournament.
Now, Eagles fans are hoping their squad can find that glass slipper Gonzaga University threw away at the Big Dance a few years ago. After scoring its first trip to the tournament in 1995, the Zags are re
teams in the NCAA Tournament. For their part Wednesday night, EWU fans did their part to send the team off in grand fashion.
"This is huge," said sophomore Dustin Kloss. "This is a big deal to me because my brother played here in the '90s, so I have a different perspective. Back then, you couldn't find 100 people in the student section."
Kloss' brother is Josh Lewis, who played at Eastern from 1993 to 1995. Now a mortgage broker in Huntington Beach, Calif., Lewis made the trek to Cheney to cheer his alma mater.
"We knew it was possible because there was always a big picture of this arena packed when the 1991 team almost went to the tournament," Lewis said. "But we were so far from it that it always hurt to look at that photo."
"I've been hoping every year that they'd get to the tournament," Lewis said. "I don't care where their first game is, I'm going to watch them play."
Although Eastern pulled away late in the game, for a spell early on, the Lumberjacks from Flagstaff, Ariz., tended to control the game's momentum.
In the event of a loss, the Cheney Police Department boosted its normal patrol staff from two officers to eight. Meanwhile, the campus police department increased its staff from two to six officers.
But when Eastern built a 16-point lead with a little more than seven minutes left to play, longtime alums Jim Webbert of Four Lakes, and Dick Fields of Portland, began entertaining thoughts of going dancing.
"Man, I can't believe this, this is awesome," said Webbert, who graduated in 1952. "I come out for most every game, this just doesn't exist every night."
Fields, who graduated in 1954, said he remembers when the campus barely had 750 students and tuition was $33 a quarter.
"It's great to see this level of exposure and excitement that Eastern and Cheney are going to receive," Fields said.
Eastern president Stephen Jordan said a trip to the NCAA tournament is going to bring unprecedented attention to the town and campus.
"I can't begin to describe the thrill for the school," Jordan said court-side, after the game. "Gonzaga's rise in enrollment and hits to the school's Web site increase after each trip to the tournament. We expect to see that kind of benefit."
Just before the buzzer sounded, and with Eastern on its way, security crews at the east end of the student section removed metal rails in anticipation of students storming the floor.
A platform was placed at the feet of sophomore Crystal Smith who set her flip-flop-clad feet on the wooden box so she wouldn't have to jump from the bleachers.
"I'm ready for this, I've been wanting to storm the floor all night," she said.
Smith said she wasn't sure if she'd be able to go to the tournament with Eastern next week. But somewhere in the sea of humanity gathered on the court was a kid with a powder blue tux who wouldn't mind taking her.
