GMU Wins Give Fans New Sense of Identity

On the George Mason campus, Kevin Lamparter, 20, and Tamii Urick, 21, celebrate the Patriots' victory over the University of North Carolina Tar Heels. (By Kevin Clark -- The Washington Post)

The slipper fit, and George Mason University fans loved wearing it yesterday. From sports bars to the student union, Patriots fans all over Fairfax City were feeling the Cinderella power after the little team that no-one-thought-could made the Sweet 16 that much sweeter.

Downtown Fairfax City isn't usually all that big on hoo-ha or hurrahs on a Sunday afternoon. But there was plenty of noise on the streets as car horns blared in appreciation of George Mason's victory over college basketball's big boys, the North Carolina Tar Heels. And there was more where that came from at the Auld Shebeen Irish Pub, where a small cadre of George Mason fans cheered as it watched the clock count down on the NCAA tournament game.

At the far end of the bar, Justin Dew, pounded the counter. "I knew they had it all along," said Dew, 30. "I knew they'd crush Michigan State. And UNC? They've been overrated for a long time."

George Mason alumna Beth Long was a little less confident when she sat down to watch the game with a friend a few seats from Dew. "I was thinking we were going to lose," Long said. "I didn't have much hope."

Hope was restored as the Patriots brushed past the Tar Heels in the game's final tense minutes. A small contingent of George Mason fans teetered on the edge of their barstools after Lamar Butler hit two free throws that put the Patriots in the lead. Long's friend Marcus Bailey bounced up and down, threw his hands in the air and whooped with joy as the final score, 65-60, flashed across the TV screen.

"This is it. This is our chance," he said. The Patriots play Wichita State on Friday at Verizon Center.

The wins yesterday and Friday against Michigan State put GMU halfway to the Final Four and added up to a big boost for the 34-year-old Northern Virginia school that has long been short on prestige. Students, alumni, administrators and fans said it was about time the green and gold got some.

"This puts us and Fairfax on the map. It's actually what a lot of us have been waiting for," said Samir Al-Hadid, a senior at GMU, which enrolls about 30,000 students.

For years George Mason has tried to alter its commuter school image, hiring several nationally known professors and boosting its science, information technology and law programs to help create workers for the vibrant Northern Virginia economy. School officials have promoted GMU's basketball team in part to unify the student body and create activities on campus.

"This is the biggest win by far, and it comes at a time when the university is really coming together," said GMU Senior Vice President Maurice W. Scherrens. "We've shed the label of being a commuter institution."

Added Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerald E. Connolly (D): "This not only creates an identity for George Mason but also contributes to Fairfax County as a community. Thirty years ago, we were a bedroom community to the District. Now we're an economic dynamo in our own right with a lot of attractions -- and now, a first-class university."

On campus, students decked out in green and gold piled into pickups and leaned out of SUVs to scream at the top of their lungs.

"Yeah, baby. You know that's right!"

The scene at the Johnson Center Atrium, George Mason's student union, was a bit more subdued. Sophomores Kristina Oh, 19, and Jenni Seong, 19, watched the game in front of a huge bank of televisions, occasionally glancing at the textbooks propped up in front of them.

For them, it's not necessarily just about the hoops; it's about the rep.

"When you talk to other kids who go to other Virginia schools . . . it's like George Mason for some reason is second-class," Seong said. "So it's cool that they're not in it and that we are, and we're actually going somewhere."

Oh glanced at the game recap on the screen a few feet away and smiled. "Now I am actually proud to say I go to George Mason University," she said.