The celebration is just getting started for MSU fans after Diamond Dawgs win first championship in school history

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – While the flight from Omaha to Starkville only takes a few hours, Mississippi State fans have been waiting much longer than that for the Bulldogs to finally bring home a title.

It was just after 9 p.m. Wednesday that Kamern James made the throw to first base for the final out of the Bulldogs’ 9-0 win over Vanderbilt in Game 3 of the College World Series Finals.

That was the moment that State fans realized they were national champions.

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The Bulldog faithful who had packed into bars and restaurants in Starkville’s Cotton District poured out into the street to start a celebration that has been years in the making.

“Every dog has its day,” says recent MSU graduate Devonte Thomas. “We finally got ours. We finally got ours! I’ve been growing up a Mississippi State fan since I was in diapers. We did it. We did it!”

“My grandparents have been waiting for this for like 50 years,” says current State student Jacob Clemens. “I’m a third-generation Mississippi State student and I am proud to be a Bulldog!”

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As the Diamond Dawgs raised the College World Series trophy, it symbolized the end of years of frustration and heartbreak for MSU fans.

“This is for the football team, this is for the women’s basketball team, this is for every time we’ve worked our butts off trying to get that national championship,” Clemens says.

“To have it come as the baseball program being the national champion, it’s just a dream-come-true, says Starkville mayor and die-hard State fan Lynn Spruill. “I know how excited everyone is about that.”

But while some State fans started celebrating, others got to work.

“As soon as they had that last out, we started printing our shirts and got someone in our headquarters to (deliver them) this morning, bright and early,” says Ann Gray Flowers, the manager for Starkville apparel company B-Unlimited.

Flowers says close to 2,000 championship t-shirts were delivered at around 11:30 a.m. In 2 hours, half of them were gone.

Flowers, also an MSU grad, was in Omaha at the game and flew back overnight just to make sure she was there to help provide Bulldog fans with their long-awaited championship gear.

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“This is the biggest thing that’s ever happened in Mississippi State history,” she says. “We are supplying shirts and we got to get them out because everybody wants them.”

With the victory parade with the baseball team set for Friday, the celebration isn’t likely to end any time soon.