Tonight, the championship game of the NCAA Tournament will be played in Minneapolis, but recently, a group reunited in Salt Lake City to relive their own March Madness 50 years ago. These days, “Church Ball” is used to describe a recreation-league type experience held once a week at your local chapel or stake center. But in 1969, Marshall Hamilton and his teammates left their home in Cincinnati to drive more than 1,650 miles to play in the All-Church tournament. Victories in a stake tournament, a district tournament, and a regional tournament made them eligible to compete in the All-Church tournament so they formed a three-car caravan and made the trek west. Their team played their way to a championship on stomachs full of fried chicken, having consumed three meals a day from Harman Café (the predecessor of Kentucky Fried Chicken).
