It is a moment that Lew Johnson had been waiting for since 1982, the year after he graduated from Oregon State.

So when the Beavers men’s basketball team advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA men’s tournament, Johnson, a former resident of Bend for 30 years, hopped into his orange and black RV with “Fear This” and beaver teeth on the back, and made a beeline to Indianapolis just to see how long OSU’s magical run would last.

“I might be dead by the time they get that far again,” said Johnson, who has since moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico, after three decades of residing in Central Oregon.

The 67-year-old made the more than 1,400 mile trek to Indiana, driving over 900 miles in one day. He made a stop in Chicago to pick up his son Eric — a Mountain View High School and Oregon State grad himself — before making it in time to catch the Beavers’ 65-58 upset win over the Loyola Ramblers in the Sweet 16.

That win set up a unique scenario for the Johnson family in the Elite Eight. Lew’s wife, Kathy, is a graduate of the University of Houston, which ousted Oregon State from the tournament with a 67-61 win to advance to the Final Four on Monday. Houston, Johnson said, was just bigger, faster and stronger than the Beavers.

“I was hoping to stay for a week because we wanted us to go to the Final Four,” said Johnson on his drive home with a raspy voice from cheering. “It has been a fun couple of weeks. Compared to where we were a month ago, we didn’t have a snowball’s change of getting to Indianapolis.”

He’s right. Without winning the Pac-12 tournament, the Beavers would not have made the NCAA tournament. But after winning three games in three days, Oregon State advanced to the field of 64 for only the second time since 1990.

When Johnson was an OSU student in the early 1980s, the Beavers were a mainstay at the top of the college basketball rankings, yet, never made it as far as this year’s OSU squad.

Johnson has made it a point to be there in person each time his alma mater makes it to a national tournament. Whether it was the Fiesta Bowl for the 2000-01 football team, or each of the baseball team’s six trips to the College World Series between 2005 and 2018. He was even planning on making a pit stop in San Antonio had the OSU women’s basketball team advanced to the Sweet 16.

This year’s trip was on par with all those other trips, mainly because it was so unexpected. He had great seats to watch the run and was able to meet (and thank) OSU coach Wayne Tinkle.

“What made this so good is that we weren’t supposed to be there,” Johnson said. “I think we were the best story out of the whole freakin’ tournament.”