LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Rings get lost. Watches stop working. Photographs fade.
So, my question to four members of the first University of Louisville men's basketball team to win a national championship in 1980 was simple: Looking back, now that all the players are in their 60s, how did winning that remarkable title change their lives?
Much of what Wiley Brown, Roger Burkman, Tony Branch and Jerry Eaves said is what I expected they would say.
It showed them what they could accomplish through the strength of a connected team. It made them a legitimate target for their opponent's most determined efforts for the remainder of their college careers.
It created memories of the nail-biting overtime victories over Kansas State and Texas A&M, the blowout over Dale Brown and Louisiana State and the finishing touch wins against Iowa and UCLA, memories that percolate anew when the calendar rolls into the Final Four as it will this weekend.
Yes, they still get asked for pictures and autographs. Brown said the last time he went to a restaurant he noticed people at a table across the room looking at him and then looking at their phones.
It looked like they checked a YouTube video. They made the connection.
"A couple people walked over and asked me to sign their napkins and take a picture," Brown said. "People still appreciate what we did and we still appreciate the love they show us."
Burkman can relate. He said mail occasionally arrives with a request that he sign a photograph or trading card.
But those were not the first life changes that any of them said.
The first item that all of them said was winning that 1980 national championship created a powerful lifelong bond. Nearly all the players from that squad live in the Louisville area.
Scooter McCray came from Mt. Vernon, New York, stayed, owns a furniture store and still attends U of L games.
Brown arrived from Sylvester, Georgia, stayed and coaches the men's team at Indiana University Southeast in New Albany.
Denny Crum celebrated his 85th birthday Wednesday with two members of his 1980 NCAA title team -- Jerry Eaves (left) and Roger Burkman. WDRB Photo Rick Bozich
Burkman could have moved closer to family in Indianapolis. He stayed, now serving as the director of athletic advancement at Spalding University.
Branch grew up 4 1/2 hours away in Michigan City, Indiana. He stayed and now teaches at Jeffersonville (Ind.) High School and coaches the men's team at Simmons College of Kentucky.
Eaves returned to host a local radio show and serve as the athletic director at Simmons after his college and NBA coaching career bounced him around the country.
And, of course, Darrell Griffith, the homegrown Male High School headliner of that team, renewed his connections to the city and university by returning home after his NBA career ended in 1991.
"Because of all the love people show us, this is home," Brown said. "That's why we all ended up staying here."
In a transfer portal/NIL chasing era where the odds are that a player won't stay with a program or university for nine months, these guys remain in Louisville, invested in their program, their university and their community for more than four decades.
"We have a very active group text," Burkman said. "We don't text much about basketball. We text about our families and what's going on in everybody's lives and birthdays. We're very connected."
"It was the closest team I've ever played on," Brown said. "These guys are my brothers. They'll be my brothers for the rest of my life."
"Our team chemistry was off the charts," Burkman said,
Eaves has a different favorite memory. His father graduated from the University of Louisville. So did his two older sisters and one of his two brothers.
His family remembered the days when the program aspired to greatness it had yet to achieve. They remembered when not every seat in Freedom Hall was consistently filled. They remembered when the University of Kentucky used every trick in its playbook to ignore the program Denny Crum built at Louisville including not scheduling the Cards.
Louisville 59, UCLA 54, on March 24, 1980, a Monday night at Market Square Arena in Indianapolis shifted all those narratives,
"Winning the national championship didn't really change my life," said Eaves, who lost his championship ring in one of his moves. "But it changed the way people thought about Louisville.
"Now we were national. Now Kentucky couldn't ignore us any more. We proved it against the best of the best. People couldn't doubt us any more.
"For me, it meant a lot because so many of my family members and friends went to Louisville. My parents lived next door to Wes Unseld's parents. Everybody knew what it meant.
"It brought joy to the people in the city. We'll never forget the way fans jumped on top of the (team) bus when we got back home (from Indianapolis). We thought, 'These people are crazy. They're going to knock this bus over.'"
"We were like rock stars because we were the first team to do it," Brown said.
"It wasn't just us winning the national championship, it was the whole city winning the national championship," Branch said. "Darrell promised a championship and we all helped him deliver.
"It's hard to describe the feeling when all of the hard work that a group puts in pays off, all the setbacks you have to overcome to get there."
All four players mentioned the remarkable relationships the players developed with Crum. Their coach was consistent in making certain they were always welcome at his farm in Eastern Jefferson County, where he often hosted reunions. The players were annual participants at Crum's birthday parties and visited him often when his health declined prior to his death last May 9.
For Burkman, it stirred memories of why he decided to sign with Louisville, and not Purdue, as a talented high school prospect in suburban Indianapolis in 1977.
Burkman was such a regular visitor to Purdue basketball games that he was invited into the locker room with the players at halftime. He remembered being amazed at Joe Barry Carroll, Purdue's all-American center, lying on the locker room floor before games.
Then Crum and Louisville invited Burkman on his visit. He fished on Crum's lake. He water skied (for the first time), with Crum's coaching, on the Ohio River.
Bye bye, Purdue. Hello, Louisville.
After playing the 1981 season for the Cards, Burkman began the next season with the Chicago Bulls but was cut after playing in six games. He had another talk with Crum before settling on his future.
"Coach told me that he moved here from California and stayed here because the people made it a great place to live and he encouraged me to put down roots and do the same," Burkman said.
"God put me here for a reason and that was to play for Coach Denny Crum and play with these teammates who have become my friends for life.
"You can't put a monetary value on that. It's immeasurable."
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