Charlottesville mayor loses bet
Virginia's 86-85 loss to Gonzaga in the first round of the NCAA tournament was not only disappointing for the basketball team, but also proved a letdown for Charlottesville Mayor Blake Caravati. Caravati made a bet with Spokane, Wash., Mayor John Powers that the Cavaliers would beat the Bulldogs and now has to wear a Gonzaga hat to the next Charlottesville City Council meeting.
"I got a call a couple of days before the game from [a radio station] out of Spokane, Washington during a call-in show," Caravati said.
Powers already had agreed to participate in the talk show, and he "came up with the idea that in honor of the game taking place in [Memphis,] Tennessee, the losing mayor had to dress up as Elvis at the next city council meeting," Caravati explained.
The Charlottesville mayor said he wanted to "try to give the team a little bit of extra spurt."
"I wanted to show the pride the city has in coach [Pete] Gillen and in the entire team," he said.
However, on the radio show, Caravati said he was not willing to don Elvis attire.
"Well would you do it?" Caravati asked. "If you were mayor of our lovely city, would you do it? I would have been mortified dressing up as Elvis. I didn't think it would fit the decorum of a city council meeting."
Instead, he suggested the apparently much more appropriate idea of dressing up as Jerry Garcia, which Powers declined.
The two mayors settled on trading hats. Powers would send Caravati a hat signed by Gonzaga coach Mark Few and Caravati would send him a Virginia hat signed by Gillen. The losing mayor then would have to wear the respective hat to his next city council meeting.
Powers had an additional stake in the game because he attended Gonzaga for law school.
"We were just trying to out-brag each other. He was obviously very confident of himself," Caravati said of Powers.
Caravati has stayed in touch with the Spokane mayor, who he described as "very nice and very cordial" despite "talking trash about the Elvis thing."
Caravati insists he is just teasing Powers.
"He's a real nice guy. We talked city business for about half an hour this weekend," he said.
The camaraderie may be tinged with bitterness though, as the Charlottesville mayor joked, "they don't have anything else to crow about in Spokane other than Gonzaga."
In a reconciliatory spirit, Caravati said that for the rest of the NCAA tournament, he'll "be pulling for Gonzaga."
"I'm really disappointed we lost," Caravati said. "But except for a couple of pauses, coach Gillen and the team did a great job this season, and I'm really looking forward to next year."
- Julia Salasky
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