Dayton fans felt disappointment in 2018 when a four-year NCAA tournament run ended and in 2019, 2021 and 2022 when the Flyers settled for a NIT bids and in 2023 when they lost in the Atlantic 10 Conference championship game. That recent history will make this Selection Sunday that much more special.

Here’s a look back at the Dayton Daily News coverage from the era of Selection Sunday. CBS first televised the bracket reveal in 1982.

March 11, 1984

Storyline: The Flyers completed the regular season 18-10 thanks to a victory against Old Dominion at UD Arena the day before Selection Sunday. They did not make the tournament with the same record a year earlier and didn’t know if it would be good enough in this season.

What Gary Nuhn wrote: When Dayton came up on that screen, “the whole dorm started roaring,” said Jeff Zern.

Sedric Toney was at home, watching with his dad. “I jumped up and my father jumped up,” Sedric said. “Man, that was a great feeling.”

Young, Schellenberg and Goodwin were together in an apartment.

“I started feeling it on Friday,” Goodwin said. “I told Ed (Young), ‘I can feel we’re gonna go.’ But, still, when it came on, me, and Larry and Eg just went crazy.”

Dave Colbert, the transfer from Cleveland State, was with freshman Anthony Grant at a friend’s house.

Colbert was on the phone talking with a girl. Grant says when “Dayton” came on the television, Colbert dropped the phone to the floor and began trading high-fives and war whoops with the rest of the house.

But the Flyer to whom it is most special is Roosevelt Chapman, the kid from Brooklyn who came to the little city in the Midwest and set all the scoring records, but was about to finish four years unfulfilled — four years without going to the NCAA. Now, Chap’s career is complete.

“I was home sitting, watching with my housemates,” Chap said. “I really couldn’t believe it when he said it. I just started jumping up and down with all the rest of them and made a lot of noise. We finally made it to the big time. We waited a long time for this.”

March 10, 1985

Storyline:

What Gary Nuhn wrote: It is not yet “ho hum” at Dayton.

It is not like at North Carolina, where they’ve been to the National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament every year since the dinosaurs were here. At 5:30 p.m. Sunday in Carolina, you gotta know they were all out playing golf. Or washing the car.

At the University of Dayton, the players were prisoners of the tube.

And, after some early teasing, the Flyers heard what they wanted to hear and saw what they wanted to see.

Dayton is in the tournament for the second year in a row.

“It’s real nice,” Larry Schellenberg said. Then he got to the point. “It’s great.”

But the Flyers didn’t just get in.

They got the ultimate NCAA plum — they got a home game out of it; maybe two.

The Flyers (19-9) play Villanova (19-10) at 9:37 p.m. Friday at the University of Dayton Arena. It they win, they’ll be back Sunday to play the

March 11, 1990

Storyline: The Flyers clinched their first NCAA berth since 1985 by beating Xavier 95-89 in the Midwestern Collegiate Conference tournament final on March 10 at UD Arena.

Headline: Flyers want, Flyers get Illinois.

What Bucky Albers wrote: The University of Dayton Flyers were crammed into the family room of Coach Jim O’Brien’s home in Centerville Sunday evening when the NCAA Tournament pairings were announced on television.

“Aren’t you glad we won last night?” O’Brien said to Norm Grevey as the pairings were about to unfold. “I’d be so nervous.”

The East Regional pairings at Hartford, Conn., and Atlanta, Ga., were first on the screen.

Duke went on the board, and Grevey yelled, “Press ‘em.”

UCLA was posted, and somebody shouted, “Revenge!”

Then Oklahoma flashed on the TV as the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Region, and one Flyer moaned, “Oh-h-h!”

There was immediate relief when Towson State was placed on the bracket with No. 1-ranked Sooners.

Moments later Illinois came up.

“We want ‘em!” one of the Flyers shouted.

The TV set quickly granted his wish as the magic word, DAYTON, was on the same bracket.

There was a roar and the Flyers all jumped to their feet and began giving each other high fives.

March 12, 2000

Storyline: Hoping for a return to the NCAA tournament for the first time in 10 years and for the first time since the dark ages of the mid-1990s when the program won 17 games in a three-year period, the Flyers entered Selection Sunday with a 22-8 record. UD figured it had wrapped up an at-large bid with a victory against Saint Joseph’s in the quarterfinals of the A-10 tournament on March 9 but St. Bonaventure knocked it out a day later in the semifinals, denying Dayton a chance to win the automatic berth.

Headline: NCAA sends Flyers out west.

What Albers wrote: Tony Stanley wasn’t watching the television set Sunday evening when the Dayton Flyers finally learned that they were in the NCAA Tournament.

”I had a pillow on my face,” he said.

Sitting on a couch in the UD locker room with his teammates, UD’s junior guard had covered his face with the pillow after the next-to-last bracket was announced. He couldn’t bear to watch anymore.

”I took it off when everybody started yelling,” he said. “I didn’t see anything. I just knew we were in the tournament. I got mobbed. I had Day-Day (David Morris) on my back.”

After an agonizing 17-minute wait, the Flyers learned that they were assigned the 11th seed in the West Region. They will be playing sixth-seeded Purdue (21-9) Thursday in a first-round game at the University of Arizona’s 13,859-seat McKale Center in Tucson.

”We were the last team they called,” senior center Matt Cooper said. “I was thinking, ‘Man, wouldn’t it be terrible if we didn’t get in?’ Then everyone was running around in here hugging each other. Someone asked me who we play. I said, ‘I don’t know.’”

March 16, 2003

Storyline: Dayton earned an automatic bid by winning the A-10 tournament at UD Arena a day before Selection Sunday.

Headline: Rain, hurricane await Flyers

What Albers wrote: Spokane? Did they say Spokane, as in Spokane, Washington?

Is that where the University of Dayton Flyers are being sent for a first-round NCAA Tournament game against the University of Tulsa?

Yessir. That’s what the announcer said on the CBS Selection Show. Bring your raincoat and a paperback to read on the flight.

The good news Sunday was that the NCAA Selection Committee showed the Flyers some respect by giving them a No. 4 seed, but the bad news is they’ll have to make a 1,740-mile trip to play a Thursday game (the starting time has not been set) against the 13th-seeded Tulsa Golden Hurricane, which won the Western Athletic Conference championship.

The Flyers, ranked 13th in the RPI, watched Sunday’s show at UD Arena. A roar went up when Dayton was put on the board as a No. 4 seed in the Midwest Region. Most of the Flyers know little about Tulsa’s basketball team and have never been to the state of Washington.

Asked if he’d ever heard of Spokane, sophomore guard Mark Jones replied, “Now I have.”

Freshman forward Marques Bennett said he once traveled to Seattle on a family vacation. What does he remember about it? “I remember a lot of rain,” he said.

March 14, 2004

Storyline: Dayton lost the A-10 championship game to Xavier at UD Arena a day before Selection Sunday but expected to earn an at-large berth.

Headline: Flyers to dance with DePaul.

What Albers wrote: The University of Dayton Flyers, who kept their fans on pins and needles while winning close games all season, found out what it was like to be spectators Sunday night when CBS waited until the last portion of the hourlong Selection Show to tell viewers that Dayton was, indeed, in the NCAA tournament.

The announcement that the Flyers will play seventh-seeded DePaul on Thursday in Buffalo, N.Y., drew a roar from the players, who were sequestered in the McHale Auditorium, out of sight from the media. Of the 65 tournament teams, Dayton was the 61st revealed by CBS.The 24-8 Flyers were not assured of being in the field, but their hopes were raised when Richmond (20-12), which they defeated Friday in an A-10 tournament semifinal game, went on the board early.

”When I saw Richmond come up, I felt better,” UD forward Keith Waleskowski said. “When they picked all of those at-large teams . . . Air Force, UTEP, BYU, I started to get worried. It was getting late and I was afraid the bracket was getting filled up.”

The fact that longtime rival DePaul will be Dayton’s opponent was of little importance at first.

“I was just happy to see our name,” Waleskowski said.

March 15, 2009

Storyline: Dayton started the season 21-2 but had lost five of 10 games entering Selection Sunday.

Headline: ‘Dream come true’ for Flyers.

What Doug Harris wrote: London Warren hasn’t backed down from a challenge all season, but he tried to get out of a weighty responsibility that Dayton coach Brian Gregory put on him Sunday, March 15.

With Flyer fans invited to watch the NCAA Selection Show with the team at the Frericks Center, Gregory asked his junior point guard to make some remarks to the crowd after the team learned whether it had made the field.

“Coach looked at me and said, ‘London, I want you to go up there and say something,’ " Warren recalled. “I said, ‘Coach, I’m going to be crying one way or another.’ And he said, ‘London, you earned (those tears).’ "

Warren did weep when he learned along with his teammates and about 2,000 fans that the Flyers (26-7) had landed in the NCAA tournament for the first time in five years. Eleventh-seeded UD will play sixth-seeded West Virginia (23-11) in the Metrodome in Minneapolis on Friday at about 3 p.m.

Warren sat motionless after seeing “Dayton” in the bracket, trying to compose himself.

“My dream growing up as a kid was to be in March Madness,” Warren said. “And to have our name called, my dream came true.”

March 16, 2014

Storyline: Dayton overcame a January slump to earn a play its way back into at-large consideration but was still on the bubble when the team gathered to watch the selection show. UD was hoping for its first NCAA tournament berth in five years and first of the Miller era.

Headline: Elation and relief are linked with the early announcement.

What David Jablonski wrote: Flyer fans waited five years to get back to the big dance.

The players themselves had wait about 49 hours after their heartbreaking loss in Brooklyn to find out if their March Madness dreams would come true. Once the NCAA tournament selection show on CBS started, though, the wait was mercifully short.

The Flyers, watching at coach Archie Miller’s house in Kettering, saw the name Ohio State pop up on the screen in the early minutes of the show Sunday. Seconds later, Dayton shed its bubble status for good.

A video camera showed the players watching the TV, and you can hear Greg Gumbel, of CBS, say, “The Buckeyes will meet No. 11 seed ....”

The Flyers’ reaction drowned out the rest of Gumbel’s sentence.

They screamed and shouted and jumped around like kids on Christmas Day — much as they did when Jordan Sibert hit the game-winner against IPFW, or when Devin Oliver hit the banker at Ole Miss, two shots that helped get them to this stage. Of course, when it comes to college basketball, Selection Sunday might as well be a national holiday.

March 15, 2015

Storyline: Dayton lost to VCU in the A-10 championship game but was considered a lock for an at-large berth with a 25-8 record.

Headline: Dayton stunned to stay home for opener.

What David Jablonski wrote: Dayton’s players reacted with shock to the announcement they had made the NCAA tournament as a No. 11 seed playing in the First Four at UD Arena.

It was so quiet, you could have heard a chicken wing drop at Burke’s Restaurant and Bar in Yonkers, N.Y, and a few did moments earlier as the team ate its postgame meal hours after a 71-65 loss to Virginia Commonwealth in the Atlantic 10 championship game at the Barclays Center.

Boise State, Dayton’s opponent at 9:10 p.m. Wednesday, looked much happier to be headed to Dayton.In a video posted on the team’s Twitter account, the Broncos players jumped up and down as they heard the news.

Like Dayton, Boise (25-8) made the tournament as an at-large team. It lost 71-66 to Wyoming in the Mountain West semifinals on Friday after winning the conference’s regular-season title.

Like Dayton, Boise plays what is largely a seven-man rotation. Its top scorer is Derrick Marks, a 6-foot-3 senior guard from Chicago.Boise State is 0-6 all time in the NCAA tournament and lost to La Salle in the First Four two years ago in its last appearance.

”Dayton in Dayton?” Boise State coach Leon Rice told reporters in Idaho on Sunday. “Well, I think our travel is going to tougher than theirs. We had such a neat experience in our first time in the First Four. I know they’re 16-0 in their building, and Archie (Miller) does such a good job coaching them.”

March 13, 2016

Storyline: Dayton had a record of 25-7 after a loss to Saint Joseph’s in the A-10 semifinals and was considered a lock for an at-large berth.

Headline: Leaked bracket allows UD to know matchup ahead of time.

What David Jablonski wrote: All the players pointed their cell phone cameras at the TV screen in Archie Miller s living room. The Dayton Flyers knew what was coming. The term spoiler alert was invented for moments like this. This was the mother of all spoiler alerts.

Halfway through the two-hour NCAA Tournament selection show on CBS, as analyst Charles Barkley fumbled through the bracket and dozens of teams around the country sweated, someone on Twitter leaked the entire bracket. It slowly dawned on everyone that it wasn t a hoax.

Long before CBS revealed the Midwest Region, the Flyers knew they were the No. 7 seed and had a date with No. 10 seed Syracuse at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis on Friday. They will play at 12:15 p.m., or 11:15 a.m. Central time, on WHIO-TV Ch. 7.

“A couple people walked in and said we’re playing Syracuse,” Miller said. “I said, ‘How do we know that?’ They said there s a leaked bracket. I rolled my eyes, and I got 30 text messages in the next 10 minutes that said we’ve got the Cuse in St. Louis. Once they started to announce the rest of the bracket, our players were saying, ‘It’s right. It’s right.’ When they announced our name, it was an unusual celebration. Last year, they didn’t want us in. This year, they told us early.”

March 12, 2017

Storyline: With a record of 24-7, Dayton was again comfortably on the right side of the bubble on Selection Sunday.

Headline: UD faces difficult road vs. Shockers.

What David Jablonski wrote: All the Dayton Flyers not to mention the coaches, their kids, administrators, trainers, family members, a few of the biggest UD fans and media members gathered in Archie Miller’s basement Sunday in Kettering. Then the TV stopped working. Everyone hurried upstairs.

Then they got the basement TV working again. Everyone sprinted back to the basement just in time to see NCAA Tournament selection show on CBS begin. The next 25 minutes turned out to be as tense as any all season.

At one point, senior guard Kyle Davis looked at Miller, who was sitting in the middle of everyone, right in front of the big-screen TV on the wall, and said, “Coach, I m not playing in the NIT.” Davis didn’t need to worry.

The Flyers (24-7) earned a No. 7 seed and will play No. 10 Wichita State (30-4) on Friday at Banker’s Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Dayton will play in the home state of its late teammate Steve McElvene. It will play in an arena where it scrimmaged Marquette in October.

Dayton made history with its fourth straight NCAA tournament appearance. It tied the school record for consecutive berths last season and broke it this season. The Flyers celebrated this time as they did the first time in 2014.

“When you hear your name and you see it, I don’t care how old you are, it never gets old,” Miller said. “We were the first name that came up, and then you see your opponent and you come back down to ground zero.”