Welcome to our tenth birthday, unofficially. Although we’ve (mostly I’ve) only been running this site for eight years, the site was founded for the 1995-96 season by the Centennial Conference and Steve Ulrich. It was groundbreaking for its time as one of the few Web sites of any kind, let alone one covering Division III sports.
As the 1997-98 basketball season neared, I noticed the site was getting a little dusty. I was back in the sports information business at the time, moonlighting a few days a week as SID at Gallaudet when they were between people (Brett Marhanka and Steve Feit, for the insanely curious). I had spent two years running a basketball page covering the Capital Athletic Conference and was interested in doing more, so I asked Ulrich if he was interested in having someone take over.
Well, within a couple hours I had e-mail with attachments right and left, and a few days after that (before we were ready, actually), they threw a link over to us. The site has morphed several times since then into what you see now.
And although we don’t have a picture of it to show you, how many people remember the spinning basketball graphic that was on the original front page. Show of hands?
So here we are now, recording every result, running our own poll, broadcasting games. We have a good number of like-minded people who volunteer on the site, collecting info and the like. We went out and found some interns to help on the site this year, another step for us. We just passed the 12 million mark on the front page.
And all that on a site I thought would take a few hours a night, two or three nights a week. Silly me. I had no idea there were so many Division III fans out there. But we have all seen the strength in numbers.
Keep up the good work, fans.
“Keep up the good work, fans.”
Right back at you, Pat. Bask in your accomplishments here, because the accolades are certainly well-deserved.
Personally, this site has helped immensely to compensate for the fact that the past decade has been a trying one for my alma mater’s basketball program. It’s helped keep the fun in basketball for my blue-and-gold-bleeding self during a time when “fun” and “basketball” haven’t really belonged in the same sentence at NPU.
I do remember the spinning basketball gif … but the only thing that’s spinning with regard to the concept that we can wax nostalgic about the late nineties is my head. 😉
well well happy birthday d3hoops! i appreciate the work you put into the site. it has certainly enriched my experience with the bball team and i wouldn’t know nearly as much about the odac if not for the website and the posting up board!
And congratulations on your 12 millionth hit which occurred on Wednesday, November 16, 2005.
Just out of curiosity, is there any way to identify lucky no 12,000,000?????
Happy anniversary. I don’t recognize the old Centennial page, so I guess I don’t go back that far. The “morphed” link turns up an error for me, but I (think I) do remember the spinning ball. I’m glad to hear about the interns. Perhaps that will ease the load just a bit.
I hope you think it has all been worth the uncounted thousands of hours of work, the sleepless nights, and the many frustrations. Your efforts have certainly meant a lot to me, and doubtless many others like me. Many, many congratulations and thanks! 😀
Waxing nostalgic about the late ’90s, yeah, when you say it that way it does seem kind of sad.
Unfortunately, no easy way to ID No. 12 million. It used to be possible to go through the logfiles and pick out the right person in order but the log is so big now that’s no good.
I fixed the morpehed link. It’s from 12/3/98. Although the images don’t come through, one of the portions of the logo is a Wooster women’s basketball player, I’m pretty sure.
Congrats!