Final Four has Superdome to thank for its evolution

    Thirty years ago, the Superdome changed the men’s Final Four forever.
    The 1982 Final Four is best known for North Carolina freshman Michael Jordan’s game-winning jump shot that beat Georgetown for the championship, 63-62.
    Superdome public relations guru Bill Curl said of the shot, “Those who saw Jordan hit that shot will remember it for the rest of their lives.”
    That night, 61,612 saw it. And, college basketball’s signature event was headed on a far different path, to play exclusively in domed stadiums.
    Houston’s Astrodome had hosted the Final Four in 1971. But the NCAA men’s basketball committee complained of poor site lines. Only a handful of seats were around the court, which was placed in the middle of the Astrodome.
    In January 1978, New Orleans made its bid and was a surprising finalist with Lexington, Ky.
    Wayne Duke, then the Big Ten’s commissioner and chair of the NCAA men’s Division I basketball committee, was at the Superdome for a Tulane-LSU basketball game. He first looked at the terrace seats on the far east side, looked at his committee members, and said, “We can sell those seats, too.”
    Curl said he remembers the gulp from committee members being heard over the roar of the crowd at the game.
    How the game was viewed would soon change forever.
    Final Four tickets were sold for $18 in 1982 at the Superdome. Curl said of those offered “distant viewing” tickets, 90 percent said yes.
    Later, New Orleans would again bid for the Final Four. One of its staunch allies was Michigan State head coach Jud Heathcote, who told the Division I Basketball Committee about how he ran across fans from the University of Minnesota in the French Quarter.
    “What are you guys doing here?” said Heathcote, reminding them that their team wasn’t in the Final Four.
    They told him, “We have been trying to get tickets for 10 years. We are finally here.”
    New Orleans won the bid unanimously.
    When the Final Four returned in 1987, Indiana beat Syracuse for the championship 74-73. Baton Rouge native Keith Smart made one of the signature shots in the history of the tournament, a jumper from the left baseline with four seconds remaining that secured the title.
    Keith Smart was a game-changer. And, so was the Superdome – 64,959 were in the building that night.
    This February, Smart returned as the head coach of the Sacramento Kings. As he spoke to a reporter outside of the Kings’ dressing room at New Orleans Arena, he glowed when talking about the shot. He said every time he passes the Superdome, he can’t help but reflect on a moment that changed his life.
    Memorable Final Four finishes at the Superdome are the norm. In 1993, Chris Webber called a timeout  when Michigan had none, and that doomed the Wolverines’ Fab Five in the championship game against North Carolina.
    Ten years later, Hakim Warrick’s block of a Kansas three-point shot in the final seconds secured an 81-78 Syracuse win in the championship game.
    But for Curl, one of the biggest Final Four outcomes is this: the last Final Four not played in a domed stadium was in New Jersey in 1996.
    Welcome home, Final Four.
    Ed Daniels is sports director of ABC26 WGNO. He can be reached at [email protected].