A.J. Owen stepped into the Carrier Dome and attended his first Syracuse basketball game in March 2003, when he was 14.

The Orange topped Rutgers 83-74 in front of what was an NCAA on-campus record crowd and behind 30 points from Carmelo Anthony. It would have been a perfect afternoon for Owen, but there was one problem.

He wore red.

“Obviously, Rutgers’ main color is red,” Owen said with a laugh. “So that was a bit of an awkward situation.”

It was an honest mistake, one that Owen has more than made up for in the 12 years since. As a teenager growing up in Baldwinsville, New York, he attended just about every SU home game. He’s since relocated but rarely misses an opportunity to watch SU on television.

His die-hard fandom helped Owen land a role as the “booster” for Boeheim’s Army — the Syracuse-based team in The Basketball Tournament — after he recruited 139 people to become “fans” of the team earlier this year. He’ll be with Boeheim’s Army when it plays its first-round game Saturday night against NYCSuperstars in Philadelphia.

It’s a dream come true for the Syracuse superfan, but his passion for SU hoops might not exist if not for a growth spurt when he was 12. After shooting up in height, he began to gravitate away from playing soccer — his favorite sport — and toward basketball. His mother, Sue Nans, took it as a chance to build a stronger relationship with her son and decided to buy tickets to the Syracuse-Rutgers game.

“Being a mom, I’m always looking for something to connect with my son,” Nans said. “So I said, ‘OK, let’s go to a game.’”

Little did Nans know, the game would launch Owen into becoming an Orange fanatic. After that game, he never missed one. Nans purchased season tickets, which she renewed every year until Owen graduated from C.W. Baker High School in 2006 and enrolled at Point Park University in Pittsburgh.

Despite remaining in Pittsburgh, Owen’s support for the Orange hasn’t wavered. And in April of this year, when he caught wind of Boeheim’s Army’s bid for a spot in The Basketball Tournament, Owen knew he had to find a role.

“I needed to get into it,” he said. “I needed to play a part.”

Owen created a Twitter account (@BoeheimsArmyFan) and began tweeting every Syracuse fan he could find, urging them to sign up as fans on the official TBT website.

Boeheim’s Army general manager Kevin Belbey began to notice Owen’s efforts and called him to offer a spot on the team’s roster as the booster.

“I think he thought I was punking him,” Belbey said.

Belbey’s suspicions were warranted. Having taken the call at his home in Pittsburgh, Owen initially had difficulty believing the proposal was legitimate. But when he realized it was no gimmick, he began jumping out of pure excitement.

“My inner teenager just freaked out,” he said.

As booster, Owen continued enticing fans to sign up until the recruitment period ended. The team full of former Syracuse players has 1,983 fans, far more than any other team, according to the tournament’s official website. That earned them not only a spot in the tournament but also the No. 1 seed in the Northeast Region.

Owen is spending the weekend with Boeheim’s Army in Philadelphia for its first- and potential second-round games. He’ll travel with the team throughout the tournament, attend team events and sit on the bench during games and hang out in the locker room. He’ll also get $5,000 of the $1 million prize if Boeheim’s Army wins the tournament.

“It’s unbelievable,” Owen said. “I get to be on this team with these players that I idolized growing up.”

One of those players, Hakim Warrick, was a member of the Syracuse team Owen saw play on that March day in 2003. On Saturday, he’ll get to watch him play again.

This time he’ll be wearing the right color.

Published on July 17, 2015 at 7:58 am

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