Crying Northwestern Kid

Submission 27,018

About

Crying Northwestern Kid is a nickname given to a young fan of the Northwestern Wildcats men's basketball team who broke into tears after a foul was called on the Wildcats during the National College Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament match against the Gonzaga Bulldogs in March 2017.

Origin

On March 18th, 2017, the second round match (single-elimination stage) of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament between the Northwestern Wildcats and the Gonzaga Bulldogs went underway in Salt Lake City, Utah. In the first half, the Bulldogs seized the lead, by as many as 22 points at one point, before the Wildcats soon began closing the gap with a rush of momentum halfway into the second half. With the Wildcats trailing ten points behind the Bulldogs, the referee called a flagrant foul on the Wildcats' center Barret Benson, leading many Northwestern supporters to react in dismay. Among them were a young Wildcats fan breaking into tears in disbelief, whose reaction immediately caught the attention of the CBS sports camera crew.

Within minutes of his on-camera appearance, CBS Sports tweeted a video clip of the teenager's emotional reaction, garnering nearly 1,700 retweets and over 3,400 likes in the first 24 hours. The match ended with the Gonzaga Bulldogs' victory by 79-73 and advancement to the next round.

Spread

Many viewers on Twitter also made note of the crying fan seen on camera (shown below, left), and by the end of the game, the young Wildcats supporter had been dubbed the "Crying Northwestern Kid" by NCAA fans and sports blogs alike.

Soon, the newly crowned sports fan meme spawned dozens of image macros and tweets in the style of "my face when" jokes on the microblogging platform.

Identity

The boy was later identified as the son of Northwestern University's athletic director Jim Phillips, who attended the game along with his two brothers to support the Wildcats' first appearance in the NCAA tournament in its history.