‘Cutest thing ever’: UD Flyers 7-foot-1 player meets up with 98-year-old fan

Dayton lost four players to the transfer portal after the 2022-23 season and four after the 2023-24 season. It lost four this spring, too, but not L’Etang — and maybe in a small part because of Hubler, a 98-year-old fan.

Hubler wrote L’Etang a letter, which her daughter Holly translated into French, and did it the old-fashioned way, putting it on paper and sending it through the mail in the spring.

“He was amazed by the letter,” Hubler said. “He was touched by it.”

L’Etang wrote back and then took the extra step of visiting Hubler at 10 Wilmington Place, an independent living and assisted living facility less than a mile from the University of Dayton campus.

The visit took place earlier this month and generated attention when 10 Wilmington Place shared photos of L’Etang and Hubler on Facebook and Instagram.

Hubler’s granddaughter Kaite brought attention to the meeting as well by talking about the meeting in a TikTok video. More than 130,000 people clicked like on the video, which generated hundreds of comments.

“This is the cutest thing ever,” one person wrote.

“This is adorable,” wrote another.

“This is so Dayton,” one fan added.

Dayton fans have bought every ticket to the last 77 games at UD Arena. The Flyer Faithful have ranked in the top 25 in attendance for decades. They are the men’s basketball program’s not-so-secret weapon.

This isn’t the first time 10 Wilmington Place has crossed paths with Dayton basketball. Last October, the official Dayton basketball social media accounts shared a video of 10 Wilmington Place residents, including Milly, traveling in a van to UD Arena, slapping hands with Rudy Flyer and then cheering from the seats.

“This is probably the best place for older people to live in Dayton,” Hubler said. “We have lots of activities, and everybody is very friendly. It has a lot of wonderful assets. It’s very home-like. It’s not run by a corporation. It’s run by a family.”

Milly wore the same red beret in that video that she wore when meeting L’Etang.

What did Milly think of L’Etang after meeting him in person?

“He’s a very perceptive person and a very sympathetic person,” she said. “I can’t say enough good things about him. He’s very philosophic. He actually asked me if I were happy. That’s unusual for a 20-year-old. And then we talked about his grades.”

Milly was pleased to learn L’Etang posted a 3.5 grade-point-average as a freshman.

“At the end, when I asked him what his favorite subject was he said English conversation, which is great,” she said. “Then I asked him what his most difficult subject or his least favorite subject was? And he said, ‘Statistics.’ I said mine, too. I had a terrible time with that.”

Milly is a “true fan through thick and thin,” her son Tom said. He said he grew up on Volusia Avenue in Oakwood with his parents, Milly and John Hubler, who died at 89 in 2004. They lived a couple blocks from the UD campus.

“Basketball has obviously been in our blood,” Tom said. “I split season tickets with another guy. I go to half the games.”

Until recent years, Tom took his mom to games every year. They were there together for the last game of the 2019-20 season when Dayton beat George Washington for the last of 20 straight victories.

Milly’s grandson Michael remembers visiting the house on Volusia Avenue when he was a kid.

“I was starting to get invested in Dayton basketball,” he said, “and she would be talking about the game all the time. I’m like, ‘Man, they’re obsessed with this team.’”

That obsession remains. Milly knows the team well and has high hopes for L’Etang and the Flyers, who start official preseason practices this week.

“I told him that it’s going to be difficult because there’s so many new people,” she said, “and they’re all very good and they’ll all be vying for minutes. I’m hoping that Amaël gets enough minutes to prove his worth.”

Milly didn’t want L’Etang to stay at UD only for the good of the basketball team. She knows the college experience creates lifelong friendships.

“The transfer portal kind of destroys loyalty to a college,” Hubler said. “When guys can pick four different colleges, how are they going to be loyal to one?