I’ve been a truly fervent fan of Stanford University’s women’s basketball team since the early-mid 1990s, during my second span of time at that school. A former student of mine helped manage the team, and she gave me floor tickets to some of the home games. That was it for me – I was a lifer.

Last night the coach of that Stanford team, the great Tara VanDerveer, won her 1203rd college game (in front of the home crowd) – more than any other college basketball coach, man or woman, surpassing Coach Mike Krzyzewski of Duke. In front of the crowd after the win, she said,

I want to bring attention to the wonderfulness of these players that work so hard and I’m so jealous because I never got to do what they get to do, but I’m able to watch a little girl’s dream play out through them. I’d be outside shooting by myself and thinking about what it could be like to play in front of a full arena and have a great game like this, but I never got to do it. But I’ve got the best seat in the house and I love it. [h/t Michelle Smith (McDonald)]

Bittersweet.