Leaving a lasting imprint at 2023 Men’s and Women’s Final Fours

The NCAA and its corporate partners are focused on lifting up neighborhoods and amplifying the impact of community service leaders. Final Four events also encourage kids to read and be active. This year’s Women’s Final Four especially focused on celebrating the 50th anniversary of Title IX.

After the confetti fell this year in Houston and Dallas, the champions received their trophies and the madness of March concluded, but here are some ways the NCAA has left the host cities better than they were before. 

Legacy Courts

Each year, in collaboration with Unilever, the official personal care partner of the NCAA, the NCAA facilitates a basketball court restoration project in the host cities of the Men’s and Women’s Final Fours to foster goodwill and sportsmanship.

Recipients of the 2023 Legacy Project presented by Degree were the Blue Triangle Community Center in Houston’s Third Ward and the Mattie Nash/Myrtle Davis Park in West Dallas.

Unilever is in its 12th year as an NCAA corporate partner and has been the presenting partner of the Legacy Project since 2018.

Student-athletes from Texas Southern men’s basketball team and Blackshear Elementary School students helped break in the new basketball court and gymnasium at the Blue Triangle Community Center.  The $100,000 renovation is one of the last revitalization projects at the community center, which was damaged by Hurricane Harvey in 2017.

Charlotte Kelly Bryant, the 92-year-old founding president of Blue Triangle, thinks this gymnasium revival will do wonders for the community.

“It will really invite more youngsters in that have not come before,” Bryant said. “Kids have always followed the ones that have the basketballs.”

Meanwhile, student-athletes from Dallas Baptist University held a clinic for over 30 local kids after the ribbon cutting for the new outdoor court at Nash/Davis Park.

Nearly all of the new court was filled with students, local residents and former student-athletes for the introductory ceremony. 

“The lasting legacy of this court will allow children in their neighborhoods, and surrounding neighborhoods, to interact socially and learn the importance of teamwork and good sportsmanship,” said Monica Paul, executive director of the Dallas Local Organizing Committee for the Women’s Final Four. “This is a special day. There’s no better time than during the culmination of the 50th anniversary of Title IX to make strides that impact and lift.”

Legends and Legacy Community Award celebration

When the Final Four comes to town, the NCAA makes it a priority to acknowledge and celebrate local community leaders who make a difference in and around their city.

Legends and Legacy Community Award winners were recognized during the Men’s and Women’s Final Four games and at private receptions for the honorees and their guests.

The five Dallas honorees were:

• Opal Lee — A community activist who is known as the “Grandmother of Juneteenth” and founding member of Citizens Concerned with Human Dignity, which helps economically disadvantaged individuals find housing.
• Nancy Lieberman — A member of Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, she is also a two-time national champion student-athlete at Old Dominion and founder of Nancy Lieberman Charities, which has served more than 200,000 Dallas children at its youth basketball camps and clinics. In addition, Lieberman’s Dream Court program has built 117 basketball courts.
• Nick Marino Jr. — Community leader who creates and launches programs centered around meal packing services for people in need. Under his organizational direction, Guinness World Records have been set for most people making sandwiches simultaneously and most sandwiches made in an hour. 
• Byron Sanders — President and CEO of Big Thought, which explores innovative ways to narrow opportunity gaps to empower youth to build their creative muscle, develop social and emotional skills, and create their authentic voice.
• Acheil Tac — A former student-athlete at North Texas, Tac is from Sudan and uses her experiences and voice to change lives, mentor, educate and encourage people in the Dallas area and nationally. 

“I don’t do this work or push these events and all the initiatives that we do for any type of recognition. We do it because there’s a need in our community and because our community is passionate about what we stand for,” Marino said. “That’s what drives us. This just helps us as a platform to expand our message.”

The five Houston honorees were:

• Lucy J. Bremond — An advocate for women and Black people in her community, the Houston leader and entrepreneur is heavily involved in a variety of programs to help the city and is a member of the Greater Houston Women’s Chamber of Commerce Hall of Fame.
• Charlotte Kelly Bryant — Bryant is the founder and executive director of the Blue Triangle Multi-Cultural Association, which is home to the first YWCA in Houston that opened its doors to women and girls in the African American community. 
• Jessica Castillo-Hulsey — A community advocate for more than 30 years, Castillo-Hulsey has greatly worked to improve the Houston area by partnering with diverse organizations, including nonprofits, civic associations, educational institutions, businesses and government.
• Bernard “Bun B” Freeman — The rapper, educator and activist has used music to positively impact the community through reading and helped organize the Hand in Hand benefit after Hurricane Harvey to raise money for the city. 
• Peggy Turner — A disability activist, Turner uses sports to promote inclusion and created Houston’s first adaptive sports and recreation programs for youth and adults. She also has volunteered at every Paralympic Games over the past 30 years.

“None of these people came with a wealth of resources,” Freeman said. “They came with a deep care and concern for their fellow humans and their community. If you really look at it, that’s really all it takes.”

Inclusion is a core value of the NCAA and utilizes the March Madness platform in the host cities to elevate the efforts of these remarkable leaders and their passions.

“Each of us have learned to bloom where we are planted,” Bryant said. “And when you do that and give back to that community, it’s important that you do so with that heart and spirit you’ve been given.”

Celebrating Title IX and women’s basketball

The Women’s Final Four, Dallas and women’s basketball served as the culmination of a yearlong 50th anniversary celebration of Title IX.

For only the second time in the 41-year history of women’s basketball in the NCAA, all three divisions crowned their champions at the Women’s Final Four site.

The spotlight has never been brighter on women's basketball, as the attendance figures and record TV ratings for the semifinals and championship game speak to the growing popularity of the sport.

The two Division I semifinal games on Friday were ESPN’s two most-viewed men’s or women’s college basketball games ever on ESPN+. Additionally, the 2023 Women’s Final Four broke the all-time attendance record, with two sellouts. The women’s tournament as a whole set an attendance record of 357,542.

First lady Jill Biden attended Sunday’s championship game to support women’s sports and celebrate Title IX. 

LSU scored the most points ever in a Division I women’s basketball championship with a 102-85 victory over Iowa.

Ashland capped off an undefeated 37-0 season and won the program’s third Division II title in 11 years with a 78-67 victory over Minnesota Duluth.

Transylvania won the battle of Division III undefeated teams with a 57-52 victory against Christopher Newport to claim its first women’s basketball championship and finish with a perfect 33-0 record.

Leading up to the championship games, Dallas had plenty of festivities and activations celebrating the golden anniversary of Title IX.

AT&T’s Discovery District hosted a Four It All Title IX 50th Anniversary Showcase. The exhibit featured a collection of trophies, videos, uniforms and more to highlight the groundbreaking legislation.

Tourney Town presented by Capital One featured a collection of historical and Women’s Final Four displays among the interactive games, giveaways and fun at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. A mix of women-centric panel discussions about Title IX, diversity, equity and inclusion and more took place in Tourney Town’s Beyond the Baseline series presented by AT&T.

Read to the Final Four

As a way to inspire, connect and leave a lasting impact on young students, a cornerstone part of the Men’s and Women’s Final Fours is the NCAA’s Read to the Final Four.

Between Houston and Dallas, over 30,000 participating students exceeded 60.1 million minutes for the signature program run by the city’s local organizing committees.

The bracket-style competition between elementary schools, similar to the structure of the NCAA tournaments, had third graders compete leading up to the Men’s and Women’s Final Fours.

Seabourn Elementary in Mesquite, Texas, and Dr. James “Red” Duke Elementary School in Manvel, Texas, each won a $5,000 prize for having the highest reading totals in their areas.

“We are thrilled with the opportunities presented to us by the local organizing committees to provide the Read to the Final Four program as an incentive to support the great efforts the teachers are already doing to promote reading,” said Victor Hill, associate director of inclusion, education and community engagement at the NCAA.

Ayline Ibarra, a third grader at Seabourn, wants to be a soccer player when she grows up and used this competition to sharpen her knowledge.

“I am really excited today, and I feel proud of myself because I used to go every day and read and I would log my time,” she said. “I like to read. My teacher encouraged us to read and said we might get a prize if we read a lot, and we won. I like to read, too, so I can get smarter. I want to be a soccer player when I grow up, and reading can help me. There are a lot of things about soccer, and reading can help me learn a thing or two about the sport.”

Each of the other schools that made the Final Four will receive a $2,000 donation for the school’s libraries.

In Dallas, James Bowie Elementary, Prestonwood Elementary and T.G. Terry Elementary rounded out the four schools.

In Houston, Kruse Elementary, Newport Elementary and Woodard Elementary all made the Final Four.