The Florida Gulf Coast University Board of Trustees adopted a resolution today honoring the men’s basketball team. It calls for the team to be known as “Dunk City” after becoming the first 15 seed school in the NCAA tournament to make it to the “Sweet Sixteen” setting a record. Trustee chairperson Robbie Roepstorff read the proclamation.

“And whereas the Florida Gulf Coast University men’s basketball team in 2013 achieved tremendous success and made NCAA history thus creating throughout the United States and beyond extraordinary name recognition and pride for southwest Florida, the Florida Gulf Coast University athletics program and Florida Gulf Coast University to be forevermore known as Dunk City,” she said.

The resolution names every player and coach and scores from the tournament games. The Trustees then congratulated the team for its hard work, dedication to each other and the university and exciting play which inspired the nation and made the community proud. Senior basketball player Eddie Murray spoke for the team.

“It’s amazing what we were able to do just over a short two weeks,” he said. “Everyone now knows who FGCU is. But this place has been an amazing place for far longer than that. This is my fifth year here and it’s just been an amazing experience thanks to people like you making amazing decisions and making this place amazing. All these people knew what FGCU was before they got here. They came on their visits and obviously saw something they liked. So again I just want to say thank you.”

The FGCU Eagles became a Cinderella story. National media attention increased web site traffic and merchandise sales exponentially.