Every once in awhile social media has a way of stopping me cold in my tracks.
That's what happened yesterday as I was going through my Facebook timeline. I troll it every day looking for tips and leads on news stories, and to see what people are talking about.
Yesterday, not surprisingly, everybody was talking about Villanova.
But what caught my eye was a post by a fan who was reminiscing about the great 1985 Villanova team, Rollie Massimino's classic underdogs who did the unimaginable by knocking out highly favored Georgetown, coached by John Thompson and featuring all-everything Patrick Ewing.
But it was how he remembered it that caught my eye.
He posted an image of our front page from April 2, 1985, with a simple 'Nova Wins screaming from the front page.
What jarred me about the post was that I designed that front page 31 years ago.
Monday afternoon, more than three decades later, I started the process of thinking about our front page should Villanova win their second national championship by beating North Carolina.
I know if they won I wanted to change our usual front page format, which features a group of teasers on the right-hand "rail." Instead I wanted simply an image from the game and a single word, "Champs."
Thirty-one years after that first 'Nova front page, I was constructing a second.
Time has a weird way of affecting our lives.
On our editorial page today, I talk about how much can happen in 4.7 seconds. If you watched the game, you know what I mean.
Still can't believe I'm still here doing this 31 year later.
By the way, something else about that 1985 page did not escape several notice by several sharp readers.
Yes, back then the paper cost a quarter.
Actually, when we first made the change in format from broadsheet to tab a few years before that, we knocked the cost of the paper down to a dime. Thus was born another of our many monikers, the "Dime Times."
I like that a lot better than another one I've heard countless times over the past three decades. That would be the "Daily Slimes."
Probably just a disgruntled Big 5 fan.
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