HOUSTON — During the NCAA tournament, stars come from unlikely places. How about Steph Curry? Sister Jean from Loyola Chicago in 2018.
And now there’s Dion Dagostino from Perth, Western Australia.
Wait, who?
“I've never revealed who the dancing man was (until now),” said University of Houston fan Justin Cuculich.
Cuculich is the creator of the “U of H dance” GIF, first sharing it as a joke back in January after a big Houston win, He never imagined it would now be a fan favorite on Twitter. “The internet's a weird place, isn't it?” he said.
Who’s sway is on display in that GIF?
His name Dion Dagostino; one of Justin’s old semi-pro basketball teammates from Australia.
Justin once gave him a UH shirt; which Dion was wearing at a party in Australia when some mutual friends started recording and “all of a sudden, I get this one clip (sent to my phone) of Dion doing a dance,” recalled Justin.
“I just said to myself, ‘That's gold!’”
One man’s gold, however, is another man’s…just what exactly? ”Oh, the word that comes up constantly is creepy,” said Dion. “Oh yeah.”
It’s more than that, adds Cuculich, whose wife works at KHOU 11 News (but wants nothing to do with any of this). “Everybody's comment, it's like, ‘This is creepy. This is odd. It's funny. I can't stop looking. Can I use it? And can I share it?’”
It’s even been shared by the University of Houston’s official Twitter account.
Dion has since recorded a Final Four version – retweeted by ‘Mattress Mack’ Jim McIngvale – and there’s now a Dion T-shirt available with proceeds going to the Coogs’ basketball booster club, said Cuculich.
If Houston wins the national championship, expect a new GIF from Dagostino and Cuculich to celebrate the accomplishment.
Speaking from his home in Australia, this new star from an unlikely place is not sure what to make of all of this
“Well the enormity of it is probably lost on us,” says the Twitter-less Dagostino. “We don't know how big it really is so it's good to watch (the reaction). It's fun.”
Speaking from his home in Australia, this new star from an unlikely place isn’t sure what to make of all of this.
“Well the enormity of it is probably lost on us,” said Dion. “We don't know how big it really is, so it's good to watch it's fun.”
Justin is married to one of our co-workers here at KHOU 11, but she wants nothing to do with this, you know, boys being boys.
And yes, if the University of Houston wins it all, expect a very special dance man GIF.
