WGNO

Ahead of Their Time: How two men attracted the Final Four to New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — The Final Four is back this week in New Orleans first time since 2012 when freshman Anthony Davis led Kentucky to a national championship.

The game is now a fixture in domed stadiums and two men are responsible for that – and one is a man who very much loved the Superdome and New Orleans.

When the Superdome opened in 1975, it was a basketball arena. The New Orleans Jazz played there, but one man in New Orleans, Bill Curl, had a bigger dream.

Curl and Tom Jernstedt of the NCAA hatched a plan, “why not the Final Four here?”

WGNO Sports Director Ed Daniels took a look at how those men’s dreams became a Final Four reality in the Big Easy.