Expand / Collapse search
☰

Villanova Championship Parade draws huge crowd

Published  April 8, 2016 9:27pm EDT
News
FOX 29 Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA (AP/WTXF) -- After a seven-year drought, Philadelphia got another chance to celebrate a championship season, and the roaring crowds were out in full force!

The city threw quite a parade and hosted a rally Friday for the Wildcats of Villanova University.

The parade route took the winners of the NCAA men's basketball tournament, the school band and cheerleaders along five downtown blocks before ending at City Hall.

The 2016 National Champions began the parade at 20 th and Market Streets, and come to an end at Dilworth Park.

PHOTOS: Celebrating NCAA Champion Villanova Wildcats

Villanova's suburban campus was closed and all classes are canceled so anyone who works or attends the Roman Catholic university can take part.

SEPTA detoured bus routes around City Hall from 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

A three-point buzzer-beater from junior Kris Jenkins gave the Wildcats the 77-74 win Monday against North Carolina.

Philadelphia sports fans have been yearning for a chance to celebrate. The city's big four pro teams have had some mediocre or worse seasons of late, and the Phillies were the last to win a title and have a parade -- in 2008.

The city's says it's expecting up to 50,000 people in town for the parade.

!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");