GMU’s success thrills Westphal Wife of UMaine chancellor served as administrator at Virginia school

It has been with particular interest that Linda Westphal, wife of University of Maine System Chancellor Joseph Westphal, has been watching the NCAA men’s basketball tournament the last couple of weeks.

No, she doesn’t have Louisiana State University, Florida, UCLA, or even George Mason University in her office pool Final Fours. She does, however, have the George Mason Patriots No. 1 in her heart.

See, Westphal not only took some classes at the Fairfax, Va.-based school’s campus, she also worked there for 15 years (1987-2002), the last few as vice-president for human resources.

It’s no surprise who she’ll be rooting for this weekend as she and her husband watch the school make its first appearance in the Final Four.

“I’ll sit down hoping to watch the whole thing, but it will depend how they’re doing,” said the superstitious Westphal. “I sort of consider myself a jinx, so I turn it on, catch the score, see the other team catch up or go ahead, and switch it off.

“When it’s down to the final minutes, I’ll watch it all even though it’s very aggravating with all the timeouts taken.”

Westphal is as surprised as anyone with the 11th-seeded team’s advancement through the tourney with four upsets of prohibitive favorites, including top seed Connecticut in overtime last weekend.

“I’m really, really happy for them and it’s just so amazing they’re doing so well,” she said. “They’re much better known for their academics than they are for their athletics, although they usually have a good soccer program. This is certainly the biggest sports achievement they’ve had ever there.”

Westphal said when she attended men’s basketball games, fan attendance at games was pretty light.

“Athletics is a whole different atmosphere. It’s more low-key,” she explained. “When I was there, they’d be lucky to have 3,000 people at a game in an arena that holds 10,000.”

Westphal attributed that to the fact that GMU, a school many refer to as a “commuter college,” does not have a typical enrollment with a traditional, on-campus student body.

“You have a lot of older and graduate students, so it’s not your typical intensive atmosphere,” Westphal added.

The mother of four children – all of them college graduates – didn’t enter an NCAA Tournament pool this year, but she has in the past.

“I used to do some at George Mason,” she said. “I didn’t win, but I think I was third once.”

So, honestly, how far would she have picked the Patriots to go this year?

“Well, I don’t pick based on stats, but I think I would have had the schools we have a connection with going the farthest like Kansas, George Mason, and Seton Hall,” she said.

Her two oldest children, James and Heather, graduated from Kansas University; daughter Amy graduated from Virginia Tech; and youngest daughter Lindsay graduated from George Mason before, ironically, moving to North Carolina two months ago (UNC was GMU’s second-round upset victim).

“We certainly thought it likely we’d have one of our schools in the Final Four, but we thought it would be the Jayhawks, not the Patriots,” said Westphal.