INDIANAPOLIS - It was a beautiful noise while it lasted - the roar of the crowd, clear and true, raucous and throbbing. And for a time it drowned out the crackling, long-ago radio broadcasts that play in Freeman Hughes' head.
In the end, Mr. Hughes wanted to be able to remember the historic national title game he attended Monday night instead of the one he listened to on the radio almost 50 years ago. There was static in the legend. He and thousands of other University of Kentucky fans were hoping to make a new greatest memory.
But it was Arizona that won the NCAA title game Monday at the RCA Dome, thwarting Kentucky's bid to clarify the legend of UK basketball and win a second-consecutive national championship.
''I won't go out and shoot myself,'' Mr. Hughes said. ''I think they've done an outstanding job.''
But his chance to experience a second Wildcat repeat had passed him by, leaving the quiet, faint sounds of a long-ago radio broadcast to remind him how it can be.
Heroes in blue
The last time the Wildcats won back-to-back championships, Mr. Hughes, now 63, was just a boy growing up in the hills of eastern Kentucky.
The mountains blocked the radio signal. He could barely hear the game.
''I sat in the hills and strained to listen to it on the radio,'' he said of Wildcat games. ''There was lots of static.''
But on Monday night, nothing stood between Mr. Hughes and the glory that every little boy south of the river lives vicariously through his heroes in blue.
He had driven over from his home in Beaver Creek, Ohio, and was in the RCA Dome, making a new memory to replace the scratchy old record in his head.
Across the arena, Art and Denise Moser of Louisville were savoring UK's repeat appearance in the title game.
''It makes us on par with UCLA and the others who have ever had the opportunity to repeat,'' Mr. Moser said.
That includes Kentucky under Adolph Rupp, the legendary UK coach who won back-to-back titles in 1948-49. ''Before I was born,'' Mr. Moser said.
The Mosers' 10-year-old son, Nick, wrote a class report on Mr. Rupp. But many Kentucky youngsters are familiar only with Rick Pitino.
''In their minds, it'll be a Pitino legend,'' said Bob Wiggins of Falmouth, who until suffering a heart attack in November had attended 615 straight UK games - a streak that outlasted two coaches.
Now old Kentucky fans can speak of the glory days without the young ones removing their backward baseball caps and scratching their heads.
Ron Mercer's jump shot sails across a yawning generation gap. Accounts of heroic deeds not only grow weak as they go skimming across mountaintops on radio waves. They fade traversing the years. UK basketball is the story of time and the hills.
''Kentucky basketball is a legend and always will be,'' Mr. Wiggins said. But many no longer remembered the most glorious of glory days. That's how the static got into the legend.
Until next year
With consecutive appearances in the title game and one championship to show for it, at least UK fans now can support their claim that the 'Cats are special.
''Louisville fans always say, 'Well, how many national championships has Kentucky won? ' '' said Kevin O'Connor of Louisville.
Somebody has to win the NCAA championship, after all. Winning two in a row, the 38-year-old said, would have been ''much more special.''
But nobody expected the 'Cats to get this far, given all the adversity the team fought through. So fans took last night's loss in stride, for the most part.
That includes Mr. Hughes, who grew up in Martin, Ky. He was one of many boys who spent countless hours of their childhood years hunched over a radio listening to UK games. Intent. Silent.
''Following the 'Cats gives Kentuckians something to do,'' Mr. Moser said. ''It's real important to Kentucky people because we don't have anything else, no pro sports or anything.''
Of UK basketball, Mr. Hughes said: ''It's probably the single biggest outside influence on most kids, especially boys, growing up in the hills.''
Then, grinning, he added:
''I remember it about killed me when CCNY beat Kentucky in the NIT.
Monday night, in towns all across Kentucky, the little boy Mr. Hughes used to be died all over again.
Until next year.
Rob Kaiser is The Enquirer's Kentucky columnist. He can be reached at 578-5584.