Notes : Only Thing Louisville Loses Is the Picture

The manager of the Cardinals Inn, a University of Louisville student hangout, managed to save face--and probably his health--by fixing his giant-screen television set with seconds left in Louisville’s 72-69 victory Monday night over Duke in the NCAA basketball championship game at Dallas.

About 250 screaming Cardinal fans crammed into the restaurant-bar near campus to watch the game.

During a timeout in the closing seconds, the picture went out.

But Ron McClintic, getting help from a student who held the antenna, managed to fix the set for a last glimpse before the crowd spilled into the street to celebrate.

“Duke is dead. We’re Number 1. We’ll always be Number 1,” said Phenius Lathon, a 24-year-old senior.

In Durham, N.C., they cheered the opening tipoff and toasted a halftime lead, but even when Duke lost to Louisville, the fans’ consensus was that the party must go on.

“We’re skipping every class we have tomorrow,” said Ferris Dixon, another freshman. “We’re disappointed, but we’re proud of our team.”

Before the game began, Duke fans said there would be a daylong party today no matter what the final score.

“Parties are planned all day Tuesday, win or lose,” said Paul Gaffney, editor of the student newspaper. “Nobody’s going to class.”

A sea of red streamed into the Fairmont Hotel in Dallas shortly before 11 p.m., as exuberant Louisville fans arrived back at team headquarters to celebrate.

Cries of “We’re No. 1” resounded throughout the lobby.

“I knew they’d win all the way,” Louisville fan Julie Owensby said. “I have to tell (Duke) they played a good game . . . But deep down inside, I knew they’d lose.”

Wearing a red plaid jacket, professional golfer Fuzzy Zoeller, who lives not far from Louisville, said he was in Jacksonville, Fla., Saturday when he decided to come to Dallas.

“We were going to Greensboro (N.C.) and if you look on a map, Greensboro’s right on the way to Dallas,” he joked.

Of the Blue Devils, Zoeller said: “They were a great team, (but) Louisville has been playing very, very well for the last month, so I knew they would win.”

Minutes before tipoff, scalpers who had been getting as much as $1,000 for tickets were trying to unload the leftovers for $100 or less outside Reunion Arena.

One of the shoppers, Tom Tolleson of Dallas, said he was offering no more than $50 per ticket, and he expected to find the three he needed.

“I’m an Arkansas fan,” Tolleson said. “I’d really rather be watching it on TV, but these girls wanted to see it.”