Though Newman Arena has been drawing near-sellout crowds this year with the success of Big Red men's basketball, the team has always counted on its most loyal fans, who have been with them for decades.

Following the victory March 1 over Harvard, the team attended a party hosted by the Rebounders, a fan group consisting of alumni, parents and friends. Some of the most die-hard fans are old enough to remember the last time Cornell went to the Big Dance in 1988, and some go back as far as Cornell's first NCAA tournament bid in 1954.

Don Greenberg '55, the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Computer Graphics, played sports at Cornell, as did his father, who was in the Class of 1922. He has followed Cornell men's basketball since the late 1930s.

"I played a lot of sports for Cornell, and it was a big part of my life," Greenberg said. "It changed my life, and I hope it changes theirs."

Prior to this season's Ivy League championship, Cornell's basketball team suffered through some lean years. Cornell has had only one overall winning season (2006-07) in the last nine. In Ivy League play, they finished with a winning record the last three years, but had six straight losing seasons from 1998-99 to 2003-04.

Head coach Steve Donahue said his first eight seasons with Cornell were part of a learning process, together with players, coaches and staff, that have culminated with this year's league championship.

"It's an eight-to-10-year process to really turn things around when you haven't had a winning tradition for a long time," Donahue said.

Carol Hardy McFadden, a retired biology lecturer who served as the men's basketball team's faculty adviser from 1982 to 2002, can also safely be counted among the team's biggest fans. She offers biology tutoring to any players taking introductory biology courses, and she can't remember the last time she missed a home game.

"I never dreamed it would be another 20 years before another Ivy League championship," McFadden said.

Longtime Rebounders Carl and Jean Gortzig were also enjoying the ecstatic celebration after the victory.

"This is probably the best team we've seen in 40 years," said Jean Gortzig, who retired from Alumni Affairs and Development about 10 years ago. Having to wait 20 years to see another championship, she said, "just makes it that much more worthwhile."