SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) - A push is underway to restore the achievements of the 1996 UMass Minutemen men’s basketball team — vacated by the NCAA more than two decades ago. Two alumni have been working on a documentary about the rise of the team and its impact on the area. Western Mass News has more on how they say the landscape of college athletics has changed, and it’s time the record books reflect that.

When we spoke to Mike Corey and Brad Davidson, two UMass alums who covered the ‘96 team courtside, and the two behind this new documentary, they say that this petition should be approved given the modern landscape of college sports and the payment of student athletes.

Refuse to lose; the signature motto of the 1996 UMass Minutemen men’s basketball squad that dominated college basketball, and reached the final four, the only time in program history.

Mike Corey and Brad Davidson covered the team’s meteoric rise as a part of the student media, and are now making a documentary film called Lightning in a Bottle that chronicles the rise of the team, which included Hall of Fame coach John Calipari and future NBA and Olympic athletes like Marcus Camby, Edgar Padilla, and Lou Roe. It aims to re-capture the magic of that final four run.

“It wasn’t just basketball. I mean, it helped the enrollment. It helped the African American community. It really kind of changed our lives as students because their whole motto of refuse to lose is kind of what we live by,” said Mike Corey.

But as many around the school would to like to forget, that appearance was officially vacated by the NCAA, after it was discovered that star center Marcus Camby had accepted gifts and cash from sports agents, something strictly prohibited at the time.

At the Mullins Center, Camby and Calipari are immortalized with statues, but so many around here believe that their team’s accomplishments should be official in the record books.

“So, you’re not talking about point shaving or academic scandal or steroids, or the university made payments or whatnot. You’re talking about an eligibility issue where in today’s day, not only would Marcus have an agent, he’d be making $4 million a year playing,” said Brad Davidson.

In a letter to Charlie Baker and the NCAA, and with backing from the university, Corey and Davidson officially requested that the team’s appearance in the Final Four be reinstated, “so for us, it’s not about, like, we were wronged, infractions happened. But in terms of history, now is really the time to look at it from an NIL lens and be like, let’s make this right,” Davidson said.

We reached out to Charlie Baker and the NCAA but have not heard back at this time. The film is set to be released next fall.

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