Wearing orange-thrift-store-bought T-shirts and blue paint smeared over half their faces, Cornerstone University students cheered the Golden Eagles men’s basketball team to victory in the 1999 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Championship in Nampa, Idaho.

“They needed us to cheer,” said Paul Koutz, assistant track coach and 2001 grad, “they needed us to help them along.”

Koutz was part of a bus load of Cornerstone students who took a 37-hour ride through a snow storm to Idaho and slept on a church floor in order to attend the National Championship Tournament.

 “It was hot, it was smelly, and it was cramped,” said Koutz about the trip, but it was worth it.

For the first time in CU men’s basketball history the team had made it to the NAIA tournament with a 37-3 season and dominated a week that ended with the Golden Eagles clinching the championship and dethroning two-time defending champs Bethel University, 113-109 in overtime.

“Cornerstone was the new kid on the block, and Bethel was well-known for having a good program every year, so a lot of people didn’t know what to expect from Cornerstone,” said Grand Rapids Press sports writer Gary Bond, who covered the tournament.

“That win put them on the map as far as being a program that people would recognize year after year,” he said, “and they are still on the map because of what they accomplished that year.”

The long red banner that hangs high above the court in the Mol Arena that reads simply: NAIA National Basketball Champions marks the signature athletic event in Cornerstone history and the 2008-2009 men’s season, which kicks off next week with a Tuesday game at Kuyper College, marks the 10^th anniversary of the National Championship season.

That red banner also signifies a time when excitement reigned, spirits were high and everybody…..students, faculty, staff and administration….joined together to share the momentum and excitement of this memorable event and plans are underway to mark the milestone in a big way.

Dave Grube, CU athletic director, said February 14, 2009 will mark the men’s and women’s basketball homecoming. The day will include an alumni basketball game, the men’s and women’s basketball games against Davenport and a time to recognize the players of the 1999 championship.

“The day will be about connecting with our alumni and connecting with our current Cornerstone University community to celebrate the anniversary of the national championship,” Grube said.

During the 1998-1999 season, the games invigorated the campus and Cornerstone connected with the outer community like never before.

 “Our gym was packed in those days,” said Bob Fortosis, former athletic director. “We had a loud, very good pep band, we had cheerleaders, we had a great PA announcer and students would just pour in.”

Before the Hansen Center was built, the fieldhouse was the gym, and it was standing room because of the huge fan support.

“People would stand outside and literally try to look through people to get a view of the gym,” said Koutz, who would go to the game early to get a seat.

After the BHAC was built, Fortosis wondered whether or not it was big enough.

“In those days, I started to think that maybe we had not put enough seating in because, for the games, that gym was pretty packed,” he said.

“Older folks would complain to me about how loud it was in the gym,” Fortosis said. “In those days, the Hansen Center was rockin.”

Koutz continued that over-abundantly passionate CU spirit with the other students at the NAIA championship.

“We were a bunch of rowdy students just yelling and screaming right in their ear the entire basketball game,” he said.

Back in Grand Rapids, as many as1,000 students, faculty, staff, and people from the outside community filled the CU fieldhouse to watch a closed-circuit telecast of the National Championship game on two huge television sets at each end of the court.

“It was like we were all right there with the team,” said Bible professor Andy Smith who was watching the game in the gym. “We were hanging on to every play, every bounce of the ball, it seemed like.”

The game went back and forth and ended with a heart-stopping three pointer from Bethel that was eventually nullified when officials ruled the shooter had stepped out of bounds.

“It seemed like, to me, that the gym went completely quiet,” Smith said.

“It was like you could hear a pin drop in the Cornerstone section,” Koutz said about the atmosphere at the game after the three-pointer.  And then, the points were taken off the board.

“The place went bonkers,” Koutz said.

Ben Peterson, 1996 CU grad and alumni director, saw a different reaction from Bethel. 

“It was hotly contested,” Peterson said. He was sitting a row away from Bethel fans after the three-point shot was waived off.

Mike Long, 1999 NAIA most valuable player who scored 35 points in the championship game, was under the basket, so while he didn’t see the shot, he did see the ball go through the basket.

“I was like, aw crap, we just did all this work and now we lost,” he said.

But Fortosis was sitting courtside, and he saw the Bethel player step on the line.

“I had a pretty strong suspicion that the referee had seen what I saw,” he said. “And that the player did step out of bounds before he shot.”

“It was probably a second, but it seemed like eternity,” Long said about the moments between the shot and the disqualification. “But, then the whistle blew and [the referee] said that he was out of bounds and that shot didn’t count.”

After the game, Long and some of the other players lingered in the gym as everyone was leaving.

“We just sat there on the court and we kind of took it all in for a moment,” he said. “We said ‘Wow, we just accomplished what we’ve been working on for four years.’”

When the team returned back to Grand Rapids, there was a throng of people waiting for them at the airport.

“There were just gobs of people, just standing out in the lobby,” said head coach Kim Elders. “As soon as we got off the plane, there were just a ton of Cornerstone fans there just congratulating us and hugging us.”

And when they approached campus, there were fans lining East Beltline and winding through campus to the gymnasium.

“The Beltline was just lined with students,” Long said. “We had tons of people out there, and as we pulled in, they all ran from where they were standing to greet us.”

“That is probably one of the coolest memories of my life right there,” he added.

“That was a special season,” Elders said. “Not just because of the National Championship, but because it was such a wild time on campus.”

“Teams hated to come here to play us because our fans were so loud and supportive,” he said. “We almost never lost a home game. It would be nice if can’t get to that point again.”