The American Myth: The Cinderella Story

It is March Madness, when the NCAA Basketball Tournament occurs.  And, often, especially in the men's contest, we hear the term "The Cinderella Story" being applied to teams that are not well seeded in the tournament, but do well, anyway.

What is "the Cinderella Story" in sports? In this instance, it applies to a lesser ranked team making their way through the ranks of the tournament, win by win, to make it to the Final Four and more improbably, winning the national championship.

How often has this happened? Well, who knows, but there is surely a sports statistician out there with that information. This link just tells you about March Madness. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCAA_Men%27s_Division_I_Basketball_Championship  This link gives you some history about Cinderella Stories:  http://www.kidzworld.com/article/25373-march-madness-the-cinderella-story.

Remember the University of Texas at El Paso team of 1966, which was the basis for the book and film "The Glory Road" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glory_Road_(film)  This was a Cinderella Story deluxe, involving underdog and racial themes. Coach Haskins recruited many black players and brought his team to a national championship.

This year has been another year of Cinderella Story teams in the men's tournament. All of the number one seeded teams did not make it to the final four.

You can argue what that means, but ultimately, it means that when the chips are down, when push comes to shove, when the going gets tough, the tough get going, and teams not ranked number one show their dominance, if just for one game.

So, this brings me to think about "the Cinderella Story."  Does it not bother you, sports fans, that the real Cinderella Story is about a woman? Sports announcers do not even have the decency to change it to "the Cinderfella Story" when they apply this term to the men's tournament.

What that says to me is that it is a wonderful, universally known term and men have usurped it for their own use, instead of allowing it to be used for the women who deserve their due.

So, come one guys, get politically correct, there are no "Cinderella Stories" in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.