Former Dayton cheerleader Carol Sue Gallagher was caught off guard when a family member forwarded a picture of her displaying unbridled joy during the 1967 NCAA tournament finals.  

She had some old newspapers clips that contained shots of the cheerleaders when the Flyers took on mighty UCLA, but this was different. She wondered who took it and why it surfaced online after 50 years. What really threw her, though, was that the photo was in vivid color.

"I had never before seen myself in color before when I was a cheerleader. It took me a minute. I thought, Is that really me?" she said.

It was. The Sports Illustrated Vault tweeted a picture her practically spilling out on the court during the game in Louisville. She contacted the magazine to see if she could get a higher-quality version of the shot and learned there was another one taken at that game. The editor sent it to her, and, after chatting, decided Gallagher was worthy of a story.

The picture and article appear in Sports Illustrated on newsstands now, taking up a half-page in the Major-League Baseball preview edition. 

But the 70-year-old grandmother would have changed one thing about the SI package. She liked the picture of her and the squad that didn't get used much better.

"I was four or five feet in the air," she said with a laugh. "I was doing complete jump-splits in the air. I can't believe I could do that."

Her friends where she now lives in Weeki Wachee, Fla., jokingly ask her if she can still do that maneuver.

"You'd have to have an ambulance standing by!"

Carol Sue Hengesbach, as she was known then, was a cheerleader for just one season. She graduated from UD with a two-year associate degree in 1967 and then married and moved away.

But the memories of that magical tourney run haven't faded.

"By the time the final game came around, we were all walking on air," she said. "I'm sure the players would tell you the same thing. It was such a Cinderella journey."

Every game was tight on the way to the Final Four. The Flyers blew out North Carolina, 76-62, in the semifinals before falling to UCLA and Lew Alcindor, 79-64, in the championship game.

Afterward, she had an impromptu meeting with the Bruins' star player who later changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

"I went back to the hotel, and UCLA was staying there, too," Gallagher said. "I went through the lobby, and the UCLA players were standing around. They said, 'There's a Dayton cheerleader.'

"I guess I looked scared or something. He said, 'Leave the girl alone.' He escorted me through the lobby and up the elevator, and he took me to my floor. I thanked him. He was just being protective, I think. He was very, very nice. I just remember he was also very quiet but very polite to people who walked up to him and asked, 'How tall are you?' and that kind of thing."

Even in defeat, the enthusiasm over what the Flyers accomplished didn't wane.

"One thing I do remember about the game was the arena was just electric with support for Dayton," Gallagher said. "Everybody that was still there from Houston (which lost to UCLA in the semis) and North Carolina were rooting for the underdog. It was extremely fun."

Never has a school felt so proud over finishing second.

"We spent the whole evening, outside around town, saying, 'We're No. 2!' and holding our fingers up," she said.

Gallagher works with current husband Otteau Christiansen in corporate video production and has followed the Flyers from afar. And when he asked what she wanted for her 70^th birthday, she chose to go to her first Dayton game in a half-century.

They were in the UD Arena stands when the Flyers beat VCU for the Atlantic 10 title on March 1. And she saw some old faces. Coach Don Donoher and the '67 team were honored that night for the 50^th anniversary of their achievement.
Gallagher was impressed with the cheerleaders, who are much more like gymnasts today. She posed with the squad for a picture afterward.

She also was in awe of the sellout crowd of 13,455. The Flyers had a rabid following at the Fieldhouse when she was in school, but the fan base has grown considerably.

"I wish I could have cheered there because of how wonderful the arena was. I heard about it all this time, and it was everything it was cracked up to be. It was a great place to watch basketball," she said.

"The crowd and the band and the bandleader were everything I hoped it would be. As my husband put it, it's not often that an event lives up to your expectations or surpasses them, but this one did."