My “Good Thing from Last Week”
I keep a notebook next to me at my desk to keep track, week by week, of the things I need to get done. Write them down; cross them off. I start a new book each year, and this January, I added a new feature. On the page opposite my tasks for the week, I write, “Good Thing from Last Week.”
Pretty self-explanatory.
My thought: keep track of a few things that made me happy from last week to help jog my aging memory later on and provide a counterweight to the completed, maybe less fun, “To Dos” of the work week that is.
For this week’s “Good Thing from Last Week,” I wrote down two names: Jimmy Rosselli and Griffin Wright. And if I were you, I’d write them down, too, because they will be names you hear from again.
We are one week into the annual celebration of March Madness, and over the years, the NCAA basketball tournament has done wonders taking previously unknown individuals and turning them into national stories and stars. It’s kind of the point of the tourney’s closing anthem and video montage, “One Shining Moment.” The unexpected heroes stepping forward on the sport’s biggest stage to create a moment fans of the game will remember for a long time.
This time though, Jimmy Rosselli and Griffin Wright didn’t wear a uniform or sink a three-pointer at the buzzer. It’s entirely possible they never even set foot on the court.
Nope, Jimmy, a college junior from Huntington, N.Y., and Griffin, a senior from Richmond, VA, are students at High Point University, a liberal arts college of around 5,000 undergrads in North Carolina. Best friends, they sat behind the microphones of their university’s radio station streaming High Point’s dramatic upset over the Wisconsin Badgers. It was the biggest upset of the opening round, by far, and their broadcast was magic!
I’ve watched this video two dozen times, and it gets better every time. And it’s no wonder at all why it has gone viral and landed the pair profiles on Fox News and in the New York Times.
It is the textbook definition of feel-good content, and who amongst us couldn’t use more of that?!
In the interviews that followed the viral video explosion, Jimmy acknowledged, like all good game-callers, he had a line or two prepped in advance just in case something magical happened. And, “Throw on the glass slipper. It’s a Cinderella story in Portland, Oregon,” is good stuff. But to me, the high point (pun intended) comes next.
“High Point breaks through. We will see you in the Round of 32!”
Spittle-drenched poetry.
Jimmy and Griff, as they are known on campus and on their High Point University radio show, are 19 and 21, respectively, and man, they are living their best lives!
It was the perfect cocktail of fandom, excitement, authenticity, creativity, and broadcasting chops. Two friends cheering on their school to its biggest win; two young, aspiring pros delivering a broadcasting moment that will be played every March for years and years to come.
I heard it and thought of Gus Johnson (unapologetic insertion of Indiana Univ. football highlight since we don’t recognize March Madness anymore as Hoosier fans). Gus Johnson would be proud, and Gus Johnson these guys could very well become.
I think that’s part of why I like this video so much.
These dudes are young! I say as someone who is increasingly not.
Such natural talent, skill, and potential. These guys have got it, and they brought it.
As a college basketball fan, I love it.
As a professional who works in media, PR, and the telling of stories, I appreciate it, respect it, and so much enjoy watching people - especially young people - who are incredibly talented at what they do.
As a father of sons, I’m proud of it on behalf of a set of parents I’ve never met. (They seem to be really good boys, too.)
As a chronic digester of digital content, I crave it and need it. Give me more good news in my feed that makes me smile. Laugh. Immediately annoy my family by forwarding.
Take a bow, Jimmy and Griff. You’re my “Good Thing from Last Week,” and I hope one day your promising careers bring you to the broadcast booth of a team I love like you love the Panthers of High Point University.