Notes

Francis gaining national exposure that contributed to their strong basketball reputation in South Dakota. [58]

In the end, the St Francis Jesuits, the NCIBT and Loyola University all gained something of value from their relationship in Chicago, and so too may have the St Francis players. The team gained the chance to travel, to see the sights of Chicago, to

make their families and community proud and, most importantly, to play a game they loved against some of the greatest high-school-level competition in the country.

Whether they fully recognized that, in doing so, they enabled non-Indians to exploit their image for financial and institutional gain is difficult to say; but, after all, they

were basketball players. They, and other young Catholic men, were in Chicago to compete, and the machinations of their mentors, the tournament planners and their

rivals across town were probably far from their minds. Through basketball, and this tournament, these players were allowed opportunities to excel in a public arena that

were not easy to come by on the reservation.