{"id":218971,"date":"2026-03-25T01:15:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T01:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/218971\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T01:15:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T01:15:13","slug":"97-year-old-houston-fan-ready-for-cougars-sweet-16-showdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/218971\/","title":{"rendered":"97-year-old Houston fan ready for Cougars\u2019 Sweet 16 showdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOUSTON \u2013 With the Sweet 16 around the corner, 97-year-old John Toomey will be in Cougar red and ready to watch the University of Houston take on Illinois.<\/p>\n

KPRC 2 sat down with Toomey at his restaurant, J Bar M BBQ in EaDo, to hear why the longtime Houston fan still lives and breathes Cougar basketball.<\/p>\n

Toomey graduated from the University of Houston in 1951 with a law degree and says his loyalties have never wavered. <\/p>\n

READ MORE: MARCH MADNESS TRACKER: 2 Texas teams escape first weekend of tournament<\/a><\/p>\n

He opened J Bar M BBQ four years ago and runs the East Downtown restaurant as part of his daily routine.<\/p>\n

Toomey starts most mornings the same way: a quick walkthrough with staff, coffee, and the newspaper\u2014often while wearing Cougar red.<\/p>\n

He has cheered on the university through highs and lows, including the heartbreak of the 1983 national title loss to North Carolina State. He remembers watching every game and even driving to Albuquerque to see the final.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, that was a real bad one. I didn\u2019t miss any games that year\u2014in fact, for quite a few years\u2014but particularly that year I watched every game. And then I decided I\u2019d get in the car and load up and go to Albuquerque,\u201d said Toomey.<\/p>\n

Toomey added it\u2019s a game he\u2019ll never get over.<\/p>\n

\u201cGuy Lewis was the coach, and we went out there, and then at the last second the guy threw that damn basketball from midcourt and it went in\u2014and that just killed me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toomey eventually moved on and held several different job titles, including stints in real estate, hotels, restaurants, and car dealerships. His passion for barbecue ultimately led him to open J Bar M BBQ.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was always kind of a hobby of mine,\u201d Toomey said.<\/p>\n

MORE MARCH MADNESS:UH star freshman Kingston Flemings earns AP All-America honor ahead of NCAA March Madness debut<\/a><\/p>\n

The restaurant has become a hub for Cougar fans on game days. Coach Kelvin Sampson even records his podcast there.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very impressive. He\u2019s a great gentleman and knows what the heck he\u2019s doing. He handles it well, and the players are very respectful and recognize his genius and work well with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toomey is hopeful this is the year the Cougars bring home a national title.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really would love to see that happen. They deserve it,\u201d Toomey said.<\/p>\n

He says he\u2019ll be praying for the Cougars and watching the Sweet 16 action at J Bar M. Anyone who couldn\u2019t snag tickets is welcome to watch the game at the restaurant.<\/p>\n

Breaking News Alerts<\/p>\n

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Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 With the Sweet 16 around the corner, 97-year-old John Toomey will be in Cougar red and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1770,416,447,9197,4475,49,56,58,57,48876,154,5370,513],"class_list":["post-218971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-basketball","tag-college-sports","tag-community","tag-cougars","tag-eado","tag-food","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-march-madness","tag-sports","tag-uh","tag-university-of-houston"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}