ITHACA -- They rolled the boxes out on the floor and the rush began. A crowd of people gathered at The Cornell Store to get first pick of the Sweet 16 shirts.
Mike Mitchell, a Cornell student, said, "This is pure elation. An ivy league team in the Sweet 16. This is once in a lifetime."
Folks here wanted to get their shirts in time for Thursday night's game when Cornell takes on Kentucky at the Carrier Dome. Fans are expecting good things from the Big Red.
Robert Mozia, a Cornell graduate student, said, "Every single year you have high hopes and this is the first year you see a team that can not only get here to the Sweet 16, but past this mark. It's really incredible."
For the fans who got their shirts Tuesday, they say they'll be showing off their Cornell pride and supporting a team they hope can make it even further than the Sweet 16.
Mitchell said, "These shirts aren't coming off as soon as we leave the store. We're putting them on as soon as we pay for them."
Besides the rush they saw in the store, there has also been a rush of internet orders that they're getting together and out the door so folks can have them in time for Thursday nights game.
Workers are out amongst the shoppers, gathering the Sweet 16 gear for internet orders that are getting shipped out all over the country. Hundreds of orders have already come in.
Joyce Jones with The Cornell Store, said, "People have been ordering all these shirts through our website so we have piles of orders and paperwork. We're going to grab that paperwork start pulling the shirts and shipping them out."
The stacks of boxes are ready to be filled and they're shipping a lot of the orders for express delivery so Cornell will have support all over the country.
And, plenty of good tickets still remain for Thursday's Sweet 16 matchup between Cornell and Kentucky. We called CBS to check and there will ***not*** be a blackout of that game due to low ticket sales. Monday, Carrier Dome officials said 21,000 had been sold.
