Thrust Into The Spotlight, Butler Keeps Calm

Thrust Into The Spotlight, Butler Stays Cool

For tiny Butler University in Indiana, advancement into the NCAA's Final Four gave the school a healthy taste of fame.

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports from Indianapolis:

On Friday night here, after the men's basketball team finished eating at a corner table in an Italian restaurant downtown, they filed through the packed eatery to loud applause.

"A month ago, we could go out to a restaurant and nobody would say anything to us. Today, we can't go out without getting stopped, taking pictures and signing autographs," Gordon Hayward, the Bulldogs' star player, told reporters on Sunday.

The college, which has 4,000 students, also experienced one of the trappings of being popular: Its website crashed.

The Web site was well equipped to handle the 5,000 to 15,000 visits that it gets on a typical day, but the 137,000 visits the day of the Kansas State game were simply too much. The next day, the information-resources department came up with a plan to handle the spike in traffic brought on by Butler's new celebrity.

And the effects of the tournament's reach were felt in Butler's admissions office, too. According to the Chronicle, Butler typically receives 15 admissions inquiries per day. The day after their Kansas State triumph, they got 300.

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot