Before Thursday night, if you weren’t familiar with Oakland University, you weren’t alone. Not far from campus, even locals at a Detroit bar watching the team shock No. 3 Kentucky in the first round of the NCAA Tournament were asking if “that Oakland was in California” or suburban Rochester of Michigan. (It’s the last one.)
On Friday, after Oakland’s 80-76 upset win as the No. 14 seed, students and alumni enjoyed their college moment in the March Madness sun. They include John Hendley, Class of 2005, who attended the game from Florida with his wife, Melissa, also an alum.
“If people didn’t know who the Oakland University Golden Grizzlies were before last night, they sure do now,” Mr Headley said.
For all but perhaps close followers of the university, a brief introduction may be in order: It was created in 1957 through a donation to establish a satellite site for Michigan State University. At first, the campus was known as Michigan State University-Oakland, but in 1970, Oakland became an independent university.
In 1997, Oakland University moved its athletic program from NCAA Division II to Division I. A year later, it changed its mascot from the Pioneers to the Golden Grizzlies, according to the university’s website.
Auckland University’s campus is more like a huge corporate park, which makes sense. There are many of these nearby, such as the world headquarters of Stellantis (formerly known as Chrysler) and other automotive suppliers.
The university is surrounded by strip malls with fast food chains and a golf course. Of the approximately 16,000 enrolled students, only 2,500 live on campus. And this is by design. There are few, if any, public transportation options in the area, reflecting the mentality of a Motor City built for cars first and pedestrians second.
Even Golden Grizzlies coach Greg Kampe is moving from his home in Detroit.
The university is a smaller option compared to the two major public institutions in the state – the University of Michigan and Michigan State University, both about an hour from Oakland. But for Oakland supporters Friday, the campus felt a little bigger.
University President Ora Hirsch Peskovich, who bragged Friday that she had correctly filled out the NCAA bracket in the Oakland-Kentucky game, said she was “over the moon.”
“It’s really exciting for us,” he said, adding that the national attention has been great “for sports and for our university and for universities like ours.”
James Wissbrun, a 21-year-old computer science major in Oakland who grew up nearby and has been going to Golden Grizzlies games since he was a kid, traveled to the game in Pittsburgh on a charter bus the university rented for students. He returned at 4 a.m. Friday and slept only a few hours before starting his 7 a.m. job with the ground crew for the city of Rochester Hills.
“It was worth it,” he said. “I’ve been coming here forever, and now to actually be a student here and see how far we’ve come, it’s just incredible.”
Mr. Wissbrun said he planned to take the bus provided by the university to see the team take on No. 11 North Carolina State on Saturday, again in Pittsburgh.
Also on the bus will be Giovanni Moceri, a 22-year-old mechanical engineer. He has organized watch parties for Golden Grizzlies games, trying to create a sense of community on campus. Sometimes it can be a challenge.
“A lot of students here don’t even know we have sports here,” Mr Moceri said.
That wasn’t the case the night before at RJ’s Pub in Rochester Hills, one of the local bars where the atmosphere was “rocking” during the game, said Russell Luxton Jr., who runs the bar and is an Oakland graduate.
The lights and sirens went off every time Jack Gohlke, one of the team’s stars, hit a 3-pointer, Mr. Luxton said, adding that for every 3-pointer Gohlke made, “the crowd got louder.”
Who knows what will happen in Saturday’s game? But until then, Golden Grizzlies fans are reaching fever pitch.
“We’re booming,” Mr. Campe, the coach, said after the win, adding that “everything is in place for this program to take off and maybe this is the spark for it.”
