Baby Mason Grows Up

The basketball team’s run to the Final Four inspired one couple to name their new son, “Mason.”

Mason Jon Holdsworth, born March 22, 2006, is now a typical threeyear old boy who likes soccer, basketball, and nearly all sports. He lives in New York with his Mason alumni parents, Jason and Karen Holdsworth, classes of 1997 and 1998 respectively.

“We had about three or four names in mind,” Jason said. “When the team beat North Carolina, that’s when I started pressing Mason with my wife. Within the next couple of weeks, that was it.”

At the time, the Holdsworths had to contend with their New York neighbors’ jeers against Mason’s beating out the local university, Hofstra for the berth in the NCAA tournament. However, when the Cinderella run really got under way, “All the local people quieted down.”

The family has thought about going to local games when Mason’s in town, but with Mason and his younger sister, two-year-old Anna, around, they’re lucky to get out of the house.

“We come to George Mason all the time just to visit,” Jason said. As Karen’s family is in Spring!eld, the family’s in the area a few times a year. “We’ll go around Patriot Circle and check out how it’s changed.”

So far, Mason seems to be living up to his name’s heritage. There’s a kid-sized basketball hoop in his backyard he likes playing with. He’s tall for his age, about four inches than the rest of the kids in his class. For now though, he has other plans for his future.

He told his mother he wants to be a pirate or a monster when he grows up.

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The above piece was published in Mason Nation: Four Years After Final Four, a magazine released this April documenting and analyzing the university's development since the Patriots' historic run in 2006, aiming to shed light on what's connected to the Cinderella story--and additionally, what's not.

Led by senior history major and Student Media veteran Rachael Dickson, the magazine's other topics include changes in men's basketball to effects on other athletics, and from player profiles of the Final Four team to the rise of the Chesapeake residential neighborhood. Gunston and the pep band also receive shout-outs.