For some fans, the familiar surroundings of the Carrier Dome was the place to be Monday. For others, nothing could have been better than Varsity Pizza.

The Varsity was packed with die-hard Orange fans cheering as though the team in New Orleans could hear their words of encouragement and chants of “defense” and “lets go Orange.” While these chants may not have surprised anyone, their originators probably would. Those fans made a special trip to Syracuse from the University at Buffalo to watch the game at Varsity.

Neil Ramage, a senior finance major at Buffalo, has been a Syracuse fan his whole life. When the Orangemen made the Final Four he knew he had to be in Syracuse for the games.

“I was raised on this,” he said.

While Ramage may have been bred to cheer in his orange t-shirt, some of his friends, while fans, wanted the Final Four experience for themselves. Nothing, not even attending Buffalo, which went 5-23 this season, would stop them.

“I’m not counting on the University at Buffalo making it to the Final Four this century,” said Andy Podz, a senior mechanical engineering major at Buffalo. As Podz was finishing his sentence, his friend Josh Kamp chimed in that they wanted to be a part of a winning experience.

As it became clearer that these boys from Buffalo would get to become a part of the SU national championship winning experience, they rose to their feet and succeeded in convincing everyone else in Varsity to do the same for the final minute of the game. As missed free-throws down the stretch and a Kirk Hinrich near miss put SU fans’ collective heart in their throats, these men, who have no solid connection to the school, were suffering along with everyone else.

“If we lose now, after being up nine with three minutes, it will ruin it for me,” Ramage said.

His night was not ruined. Seth Rose, a senior finance major at Buffalo, whispered how Ramage was the one who cared the most. The rest were along for the ride and enjoying every minute.

Among those for whom Ramage and his friends were cheerleaders were SU students Jackie Mecchella and Eileen Rieger. Mecchella, a junior political philosophy major, and Rieger, a junior television radio and film major, hoped to go to a bar. But when all the bars were filled, they chose Varsity. The two, along with friend Annette Moskal, made the most of their night helping with the cheers and socializing with the police officers also enjoying the game in Varsity.

“Even the police officers were fun,” Rieger said.

The decision to go to Varsity and then party later was not one the group was making without sacrifice. They are all members of the SU club volleyball team and leave today for a national tournament in Ohio .

“We will not be getting any sleep, but it is worth it,” Mecchella said.

Fans in Varsity were not the only ones getting rowdy as the game went on. Those fans who went to the Carrier Dome were treated to profanity-laced versions of Gary Glitter’s “Rock and Roll Part II” and the cheers of 11,068 other Orangeman fans.

The more than 11,000 fans were not made up of all students. Angelette Robinson attended the game with her husband Mitch, son Jalen and nephew Daquine Dancer. Angelette Robinson said the atmosphere in the Dome was even better than it was for the national semi-final.

“The crowd is even wilder tonight than it was Saturday,” she said.

These wild crowds at two separate venues brought together so many fans with one common interest: to see if their Orangemen could take their first national title back to Syracuse. For many, the atmosphere in which they watched the game brings even more meaning to the memories.

“I came to Varsity because it is such a well-known establishment and it has so much history,” Ramage said as he took a sip from his Budweiser and watched SU make more of that history.

Published on April 7, 2003 at 12:00 pm