CHICAGO -- No one knows exactly when Maureen Dillon became a team manager for DePaul University's women's basketball team. It was sometime in the early 1990s that she first started handing water and towels to DePaul players. Dillon had been sitting behind the bench supporting her beloved Blue Demons. It seemed only natural to pitch in.
More than 20 years later, Dillon still attends every DePaul home game, wearing her signature blue polo shirt, and has a designated spot behind the bench with the other managers.
Coach Doug Bruno wouldn't have it any other way. He shares a bond with Maureen that extends beyond the basketball court. Bruno is married to Maureen's older sister, Patty, and he is also Maureen's godfather.
He still remembers the day Maureen came home from the hospital in the spring of 1972. At the time, Bruno was a standout basketball player for DePaul and had been dating Patty for two years. Since the Dillons lived near the DePaul campus, Bruno was a regular at the house, and he was there when the family learned that Maureen had Down syndrome.
The Dillons didn't flinch at the diagnosis, Bruno said. The family was already 12 kids deep and knew a thing or two about resiliency and determination. Maureen was just "Lucky 13."
"I'll never forget the embrace of the Dillon family," Bruno recalled. "To see the love for that child was just really, really special."
The Dillons saw something special in Bruno as well, asking him to be Maureen's godfather.
"A human being could not have been blessed with a better child to be the godfather to," said Bruno, who took over the Blue Demons program in 1988 after a brief stint from 1976 to '78.
Maureen, a former Special Olympics athlete, grew up in the Dillons' bustling Lincoln Park home and became a fixture at DePaul women's basketball games when Bruno became head coach.
"I like to be there," Maureen Dillon, 43, told espnW recently. "I'm supporting DePaul people from the team."
To call her a loyal fan is an understatement.
"From the moment she gets up to the moment she goes to bed, it's DePaul," Patty Bruno said. "She eats and drinks and sleeps DePaul. She is as much DePaul as Doug is DePaul."
Which is saying a lot considering the basketball court at McGrath-Phillips Arena is called Doug Bruno Court.
It's on that court that Dillon and Bruno share a pregame ritual at home games. After Bruno gives his players final words of strategy and encouragement in the locker room, he enters the arena and heads straight for half court, where Dillon is waiting. The two give each other a fist bump and Bruno gives Dillon a peck on the cheek.
Dillon's favorite part of games comes at breaks in the action. During timeouts, she stands behind Bruno while he talks to his team, and when timeouts draw to a close, Dillon places her hand on his shoulder.
"That's what I really like," she said. "He knows that I'm there [for him]."
Dillon's presence is felt by everyone associated with the DePaul women's basketball program. She is included in team pictures, gives postgame pep talks in the locker room after home wins and even sends coaches text messages when the team is on the road.
"Maureen helps make our program whole," Bruno explained. "She is part of the team."