THE CINDERELLA POWERHOUSE

While it’s always the blue bloods we pick to win come tournament time, we want to see last second shots, spectacular upsets and a Cinderella story take the tournament by storm.

What will we remember years later? Dunk City, Sister Jean, the dogpile that ensued after Bryce Drew’s three-pointer at the buzzer gave Valparaiso its first-ever NCAA Tournament win? What did those teams mean to students and staff on campus, their communities, their alumni?

This series will explore the greatest Cinderella stories, and examine the teams that brought us both awe and joy again and again. Teams that somehow, without the history and reputation, became tournament regulars, or in the case of Gonzaga, a full-on college basketball powerhouse and perennial championship contender. How did these teams come to be, and in a new age of college sports, will they be the exception or the rule?

FROM SARAJEVO TO THE FALL OF THE SOVIET UNION

The 1984 Winter Olympics, the first ever held in a Communist state, were by all accounts a rousing success. What had previously been known solely as the site where the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand marked the start of World War I became a global cosmopolitan city – Yugo vehicles being sold globally, improved mass infrastructure and the opening of a Holiday Inn.

In a December 1981 referendum, Yugoslavians overwhelmingly okayed a voluntary 2% self-contribution to fund the Olympics. In image and in medals – the count was dominated by East Germany and the Soviet Union – the Winter Games were a victory for communism

Within a decade, none of these countries would exist. The Berlin Wall was knocked down, the Soviet Union collapsed and civil war had torn apart the former Yugoslavia, leaving what had been a sparkling new city lying in ruins.

How did this come to be? In retrospect, were the 1984 Winter Olympics actually just a Pyrrhic victory, and in fact, one of the first dominoes leading to the fall of Communism?