March Madness has become one of the biggest and best spectacles in sports and every teams goal is to win the National Championship. Every year, there is always that one team in the tournament that has that one shining moment by winning the championship. With March Madness being in full effect, I thought it would be the perfect time to discuss March Madness and the history of their iconic song.
March Madness has been going on for a very long time, starting all the way back in 1939, and it has always lived up to the hype. Every year, there has been countless memorable moments that have taken place during the tournament. Some of these moments include major upsets, big plays, and iconic game winners. In 1986, there was a song that was created that became the anthem for March Madness and it would help show the best moments from the tournament every year.
In 1986, singer David Barrett recorded the song titled One Shining Moment, and this was the birth of one of the most iconic songs in sports. According to Barrett, he really decided to write this song about basketball from the beginning. After completing the song, he immediately knew that he had made a great song and he loved it, but due to being in a small town, he lowered his expectations of something coming from it. Barrett says that he ended up sending it to one of his friends, Armen Keteyian, who worked at Sports Illustrated, this ended up paying off big time.
According to Barrett, Keteyian listened to the song and he thought it was so good that he decided to walk over to the CBS studios and told them “listen to this.” CBS was so impressed with it that they actually called Barrett, told him that they loved it, and asked him if they could use it for the Super Bowl even though it was a song about basketball. After pondering the offer, Barrett couldn’t pass it up and decided to let CBS use the song. Ultimately, the song ended up not being played during the Super Bowl, but they ended up calling him back and asked him if they could use it for March Madness.
Barrett, of course, accepted this offer again with the hopes that it would make its way onto the air. Although it didn’t get used during the Super Bowl, he still had some hope that it would be used during March Madness at some point, and eventually, that time came. As Barrett was looking back at the whole situation, he stated that “it was like the song knew where it was to be and would not be denied.”
Some people may call this story for Barrett a “cinderella story” because it was almost like it was a miracle for his song to be used in this capacity, and he understands why people see it that way. However, Barrett stated that One Shining Moment opened up a huge door for him to help out his career and to have his music finally get the recognition he was looking for. Barrett said “It is fair to say that One Shining Moment swung open a mighty big door which I promptly walked through…ran through…sprinted through…and many of the compositions that I had squirreled away for years now found their way to television and movies.”
One Shining Moment has helped showcase some of March Madness most iconic moments including upsets and big shots. One example of this is the 2016 March Madness tournament. In this edition of One Shining Moment, they highlighted underdog teams such as Middle Tennessee State, Yale, Stephen F. Austin, and more. They also covered some of the clutch shots from that year’s tournament including the famous game winning shot by Kris Jenkins from Villanova to beat North Carolina in the National Championship.
The 2018 March Madness Tournament also had a lot to offer for this edition of One Shining Moment. As always, this edition of One Shining Moment shared some of the best storylines from that year’s tournament by showing us some of the biggest cinderella stories and some of the biggest shots. They showed some historic moments like Loyola Chicagos big run to the Final Four and UMBC becoming the first 16 seed to ever beat a number 1 seed.
March Madness has given us many different memorable moments over the years and One Shining Moment has been able to tell a new story about the tournament every year. One Shining Moment has been a tribute to the tournament over the years and it has become one of the most recognizable and iconic songs in sports. The purpose of the song has been to give a tribute to the tournament and it has grown into a saying for the team that wins the championship and they claim that they have achieved their “one shining moment.”
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