MEXICO CITY (AP) — Devotees of Mexico’s patron saint, the Virgin of Guadalupe, flooded streets overnight near the capital's Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, carrying images of her on their backs and converging with music, bottle rockets, candles and prayers.
Some say that every Dec. 12, all roads in Mexico lead to the enormous circular Roman Catholic church where the faithful come to show their devotion on the anniversary of the apparition of the Virgin Mary in 1531, one of the largest Catholic pilgrimages in Latin America.
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A man prays outside the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, on her feast day, Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Claudia Rosel)
People carry images of the Virgin of Guadalupe to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, on her feast day, Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Claudia Rosel)
A woman crawls on her knees to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, on her feast day, Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Claudia Rosel)
Pilgrims gather outside the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, on her feast day, Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Claudia Rosel)
A woman cries as she looks up at the Virgin of Guadalupe image handing on the wall at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, on her feast day, Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Claudia Rosel)
Pilgrims arrive at Our Lady of Guadalupe Basilica in Mexico City, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, the day before her feast day. (AP Photo/Claudia Rosel)
Pilgrims arrive at Our Lady of Guadalupe Basilica in Mexico City, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, the day before her feast day. (AP Photo/Claudia Rosel)
Candles with the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe sit inside the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, the day before her feast day. (AP Photo/Claudia Rosel)
Pilgrims carry a framed image of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Paso de Cortes, Mexico, on their way to Mexico City, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025, as millions prepare to flock to the capital for her Dec. 12 feast day. (AP Photo/Claudia Rosel)
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she had spoken with Pope Leo XIV Friday to invite him to visit the country. She wrote on the social platform X that the pontiff had “sent blessings and greetings to all.”
“We agree that beyond the religion that each person professes and the laity of the state, the Virgin of Guadalupe is a symbol of identity and peace for Mexicans,” she wrote.
Leo celebrated a Mass Friday at the Vatican in honor of Mexico's patron saint.
The previous night, even before the crowd began to sing the traditional Mexican birthday song “Las Mañanitas,” thousands of people already covered the expansive square outside the basilica. Streams of people continued to pour in.
Images of the Guadalupana, as she is popularly known, filled the square, including the taco stands where tired pilgrims stopped to regain their strength.
“We came to ask for health,” said Gladys López, who walked with her teen daughter and seven other family members from San Felipe Teotlalcingo, some 62 miles (100 kilometers) east of the capital in Puebla state. “We wanted my daughter to see her and we all came from our town.”
The exhaustion and sleeping on the ground were worth it, López said, as she prepared to cover the last few yards of their journey.
Some waited for a priest to come out and bless their Virgin figurines. Some tearfully lit candles, overcome with emotion.
José Luis González Paredes, 82, carried an image of the Virgin adorned with flowers. He has been making the annual pilgrimage for more than three decades to receive the blessing.
“I am only going to ask that (the Virgin) allows me to bring her again next year and gives me the health to endure the journey,” he said.
According to church tradition, in 1531, the Virgin appeared to the Indigenous peasant Juan Diego when her image was imprinted on his cloak, which is on display inside the church. Juan Diego was made a saint in 2002 by Pope John Paul II.
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
A man prays outside the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, on her feast day, Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Claudia Rosel)
People carry images of the Virgin of Guadalupe to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, on her feast day, Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Claudia Rosel)
A woman crawls on her knees to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, on her feast day, Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Claudia Rosel)
Pilgrims gather outside the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, on her feast day, Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Claudia Rosel)
A woman cries as she looks up at the Virgin of Guadalupe image handing on the wall at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, on her feast day, Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Claudia Rosel)
Pilgrims arrive at Our Lady of Guadalupe Basilica in Mexico City, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, the day before her feast day. (AP Photo/Claudia Rosel)
Pilgrims arrive at Our Lady of Guadalupe Basilica in Mexico City, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, the day before her feast day. (AP Photo/Claudia Rosel)
Candles with the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe sit inside the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, the day before her feast day. (AP Photo/Claudia Rosel)
Pilgrims carry a framed image of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Paso de Cortes, Mexico, on their way to Mexico City, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025, as millions prepare to flock to the capital for her Dec. 12 feast day. (AP Photo/Claudia Rosel)
CLEVELAND, Miss. (AP) — A sparse crowd drifted into Walter Sillers Coliseum for Delta State’s first women’s basketball game in 1973.
It was a 4 p.m. tipoff against Holmes Community College — announced only in the local paper in rural Cleveland, Mississippi. There were no tickets, no concessions or buzz. Just a handful of curious women's basketball fans with no clue what this team led by a former high school coach named Margaret Wade could be.
“We had no expectations because, see, the coach came from the high school, and she had never coached college ball," said Dot Bright, a 1962 Delta State graduate who still lives just a few blocks from the school. "So we thought, 'Oh, OK. It’s all in the family. We thought it was just little hometown people.”
What Bright and a few others saw that day was the beginning of something bigger. Within a couple of years, Delta State became one of women's basketball's early powerhouses. The Lady Statesmen were the first No. 1 team when the women's college basketball poll debuted 50 years ago and won three straight national championships in the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) from 1975-1977.
The Lady Statesmen will be recognized during “The AP Top 25 Fan Poll Experience” being held Thursday-Saturday at Arizona State’s First Amendment Forum in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The poll has served as a road map for the rise of the sport, though a lot has changed since the NCAA took over in 1982.
The women's basketball spotlight has since shifted elsewhere as money reshaped the sports landscape and large programs with big budgets — like the powerhouses in this weekend’s Final Four including UConn and South Carolina — began to dominate.
In Cleveland, Delta States' rich legacy still resonates.
“People still support it," Delta State athletic director Mike Kinnison said. "While we’ve had some ups and downs with it, it’s still a good program. That's still very important to me that we keep that tradition and keep that history and heritage out front.”
Reminders of that history are scattered across Delta State's campus. The basketball court is named after coach Lloyd Clark, who led the program to three national titles in 1989, 1990 and 1992 after its move to the NCAA's Division II. The jerseys of star players including women's basketball pioneer Lusia Harris are hanging in the gym. A “Hall of Fame” room of photos and trophies is set up in the athletic building chronicling those dominant days.
Current Delta State women's basketball coach Tracy Stewart-Lange makes sure prospective players are aware of the program's legacy when they arrive on campus.
Stewart-Lange, who just led the Lady Statesmen to an 18-11 record in her fourth season, stops recruits by the stadium's concourse to see a replica of the Wade Trophy given each year to the best player in women's basketball, which is encased near the front door, as well as a display of Delta State's national championship trophies under Wade and Clark.
Even Delta State football coaches bring up Wade, Clark and Harris when selling recruits on the school.
“You try to give them little snippets of, ‘Guys, this is where you are now,’” Stewart-Lange said. “'Don’t take it for granted. Step into those shoes and shine and push it forward. Get it back to the top.'”
Wade, who had coached at nearby Cleveland High School years before taking over at Delta State ahead of the 1973 season, had a roster that included the future Hall of Famer, Harris, who became one of the greatest women's players ever.
But publicity was scarce that first year. Former sports information director Langston Rogers recalled that many local and regional papers mostly ran box scores — until the wins and crowds became impossible to ignore.
The Lady Statesmen went undefeated in 1974, upsetting Philadelphia powerhouse Immaculata to win the AIAW national title and quickly building national credibility with wins over teams like Ole Miss and Auburn. They eventually drew thousands to venues like Madison Square Garden and UCLA's Pauley Pavilion, a rarity in women's hoops during that time.
Demand at home far exceeded the 3,000-seat Walter Sillers Coliseum, so portable bleachers were brought in and students sat along stage railings to squeeze inside.
"Everybody in Cleveland knew us and knew our names," said Debbie Brock, starting point guard from 1974-78. “You would drive up to the Sonic — and we didn’t have many restaurants or anything then — but I’d go to the Sonic, and the man would say, ‘Great game tonight.’”
Kinnison, athletic director since 2019, is now trying to recapture those times.
After the NCAA replaced the AIAW as the governing body for women's college sports, Delta State and other small colleges faced a major challenge to stay competitive on a national scale.
Recruiting advantages and national media attention have since dwindled, and for a while it was hard to bring in the same caliber of coaches.
“People don’t jump up and down when they find out they’re moving to the Mississippi Delta,” Bright said. “It’s hard to recruit here. I think the coach we have now, Coach Lange, she is doing an awesome job ... We have a very good record this year, some of the best since Lloyd Clark.”
Bright, 82, still never misses a game — though they're much quieter than they were 50 years ago.
Stewart-Lange runs into people around the Cleveland area who talk of their memories from those days. That gives her hope that local support can still remain even as the national spotlight has faded.
“I do feel like the undercurrent is there within the community,” Stewart-Lange said. “It’s been done before. And it can be done again.”
AP Top 25 Fan Poll Experience: https://apnews.com/https:/apnews.com/projects/arizona-state-fan-poll-experience/
AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
FILE - Delta State center Lusia Harris, right, towers over Penn State's Mag Strittmatter, left, as she pulls down a rebound at Penn State in University Park, Pa., March 24, 1976. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - Delta State University's Lusia Harris (45) gets off a shot against Queens College during a women's college basketball game at Madison Square Garden in New York, Feb. 23, 1976. (AP Photo/Ron Frehm, File)
Delta State women's basketball coach Tracy Stewart-Lange poses for a photo, Feb. 17, 2026, in Cleveland, Miss. (AP Photo/Alanis Thames)
The Delta State women's basketball locker room is seen, Feb. 17, 2026, in Cleveland, Miss. (AP Photo/Alanis Thames)
The Delta State basketball court is seen, Feb. 17, 2026, in Cleveland, Miss. (AP Photo/Alanis Thames)
