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Screaming Pacers fan from 1998 creates viral docu drama

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — If you’ve been watching the documentary series “The Last Dance,” then you’ll know one Pacers fan got her money’s worth from the stands during the 1998 Eastern Conference Finals.

News 8 sports director Anthony Calhoun tracked down that fan widely talked about on social media.

The 10-part documentary series about Michael Jordan ended Sunday night, and the Indiana Pacers were highlighted in Episode 9 with a recap of the 1998 Eastern Conference Finals.

On Monday, one Pacers fan woke up with the national spotlight on her because of her passion for the blue and gold.

WISH-TV viewers see Kathy Harrison on commercials as co-owner of Ed Martin Automotive, but millions saw her Sunday night. In the documentary, she was the die-hard, screaming Pacers fan from 22 years ago. She was screaming at the referees and the Chicago Bulls.

Harrison told News 8, “When they showed me, I was like, ‘Oh, my goodness. Oh, dear.’ And I looked over at (husband) Mark and he looked at me and then they showed me again, and we were both looking at each other just cracking up. And he looked at me and said, ‘You can run, but you can’t hide.’”

Harrison added, “Everybody was just texting me and sending screenshots of everything that was being posted and ‘You’ve gone viral.’ I got something from a friend in New Zealand and it’s like ‘Oh my goodness, what’s going on here?’ So yeah, the phone has been blowing up.”

Rumor has it that, in the 1990s, visiting teams knew they might be in for a hard time when they took on the Pacers and when it came to the players Kathy interacted with the most.

Harrison said, “Michael was so totally cool that he would just turn around and look at me and just shake his head and laugh, you know. But, Dennis Rodman and I went at it every series. He and I would go back and forth at each other all in fun. It was all in fun. It was nothing mean. He wasn’t mad. I wasn’t mad. It was just pure fun, and a lot of times he was supposed to be in the huddle and he’s over there yelling at me.”

Kathy and Mark have had those coveted seats behind the visitors bench for 44 years.

Harrison said, “We knew we had a job to do, and that was get inside the players’ heads because we definitely felt like we could make a difference. So back in those days, we were allowed to banter with the opposing team, and they’d bark back and forth with us, and it was all in fun. It was so much fun.”

Kathy, told Calhoun that she has been going to Pacers games since the late 1960s with her dad and she will always bleed blue and gold.