About 13 rows up in the middle of section 305 of the Carrier Dome on Sunday, three Michigan State fans dressed in bright green morph suits stood, leading a group of nearly 30 of their cohorts in a run-through of the team’s fight song.

Tony Golumbeck donned a green Student Engineering Council polo from his days at Michigan State and yelled at the top of his lungs. His brother, Kevin Golumbeck, sported black sunglasses while clapping along to the tune, and his father, Ron Golumbeck had sweat peeking out from beneath his green hat marked with a large silver block S.

Each member of the trio had green patterned ties hanging around his neck, finishing off the outfit.

“We had to wear ties because if you want to go to the Big Dance you have to be dressed up,” Kevin Golumbeck said.

Tony attended graduate school at Michigan State and as a result, his sons have been lifelong fans. Tony and Ron live in Geneva, New York, about an hour west of Syracuse, but Kevin drove all the way from North Carolina for the weekend. The three were part of a dominant Michigan State crowd at the Carrier Dome on Sunday that watched Michigan State defeat Louisville, 76-70, to advance to the Final Four.

“We know all of the cheers chants and we thought this would be a great opportunity to support the Spartans,” Tony said.

Kevin and Tony led The Izzone, MSU’s student section, during their time as undergraduates. Every game they arrived early, sat in the first row and organized cheers.

But when Ron bought the tickets to the East Regional as a future birthday present for himself, they had no idea if Michigan State was going to make it that far in the NCAA tournament or what bracket it would be in.

“We just got lucky, lucky, lucky,” Ron said.

On Friday, Kevin arrived in Geneva after an 11-hour trip from North Carolina, stopping only to take a two-hour nap in Pennsylvania. Tony presented Kevin and Ron with the morph suits that he had ordered online as their attire for the game.

They took their seats in the upper deck of the Dome for the first game of the Sweet 16 on Friday — Louisville against North Carolina State — but three other fans walked up the to section asking for anyone wearing green.

Those fans had been given four tickets behind the Michigan State bench on condition that they find a fourth MSU fan to sit with them. Tony volunteered and his dad and brother snagged seats in the lower bowl, too, from a couple that was leaving.

“I mean Magic Johnson was nine rows in front of us,” Tony said, in shock. “It was awesome. Especially the second half because the first half I didn’t cut these holes yet so it was a little hard to see.”

After the game, in which Michigan State defeated Oklahoma to advance to the Elite Eight, they arrived home around 2 a.m. and watched a rerun of the game they had just seen in person, picking themselves out in the crowd.

On Sunday, Ron turned 65 and the three waved their towels and pompoms from the third level this time. Kevin and Tony wore sunglasses to cover the holes in their morph suits and the frames of Ron’s prescription glasses poked through the holes in his suit.

Occasionally, strangers would stop by and ask to take a picture.

“Oh this is the best, no doubt about it so far,” Ron said during halftime. “When they win, that’ll be the culmination of a great birthday.”

As the final buzzer sounded, clinching an MSU victory of Louisville, Tony and Kevin jumped in the air and yelled. Ron clenched his fists in celebration. The three shared an embrace before joining the surrounding fans in singing the fight song for the last time.

“It’s outstanding fun,” Ron said.

Published on March 29, 2015 at 10:20 pm

Contact Jon: jrmettus@syr.edu | @jmettus