Thousands of college basketball fans are in Fort Worth for the start of the March Madness tournament.
Dickies Arena is hosting the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament. The first matchup Thursday afternoon between Baylor and Norfolk ended with an 85-49 win for Baylor.
Alexis Chachere of Waco is a lifelong fan of the team and has gone to games with her father since she was a child.
“It’s just a hometown thing. It’s what we had growing up. There wasn’t really anything around there unless you went to Dallas or Austin so growing up in Waco, it was green and gold,” Chachere said. “That’s what you did on Saturdays and Sundays for basketball.”
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Sonja and Roderick Bridgers flew to Texas from Virginia on Thursday morning to support Norfolk State, where Sonja graduated from. This is their first time attending March Madness in person, she said.
“We came out because we always support our Spartan basketball team no matter where they are. No matter who they’re playing, so it was a no-brainer for us to fly out here this morning,” she said.
Cynthia Perez and her family drove from South Texas to support the North Carolina Tar Heels, but this is their first time watching the team play in person.
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“We watched the Spurs game last night in San Antonio then drove straight up here this morning,” Perez said.
Kevin Parks of Atlanta has been to a March Madness game before, though he brought his son Thursday. Parks is an alumnus of the University of Kansas, which is scheduled to play Texas Southern on Thursday night. Tip-off is 8:57 p.m.
“He [son] brought three different uniforms. My wife went to Marquette, so he brought that. I grew up in Omaha, Nebraska so brought that. And he’s wearing Baylor. I don’t know where he brought that,” Parks said.
Dickies Arena officials expect the arena to be at max capacity with 13,000 people both Thursday and Saturday for the games.
