A photo from each year, starting in the lower left-hand corner, helps tell the story of 20 years of coverage of NCAA Division III men's and women's basketball. D3sports.com photo illustration

A few days after Pat Coleman’s first child was born, so was D3hoops.com. That is at least the story Coleman tells.

Nov. 26, 1997 to be exact. He put the finishing touches on the website on the last night before that baby came home and their lives changed forever

Coleman had found the website Division III Basketball Online run by Centennial Conference commissioner Steve Ulrich. Over the course of a few weeks or months, Coleman had suggested some ideas to help keep the site up to date. Ultimately, it led to asking Ulrich if Coleman could help keep the site updated. Even taking it over, perhaps.

Two emails later, then a domain name purchase and eventually a name change, the site we all know as D3hoops.com was born.

Unbelievably, 20 years later D3hoops.com is still going strong and as most know it helped spawn D3football.com, D3baseball.com, and D3hockey.com all under the D3sports.com umbrella. The technology bubble burst, technology changed, staff members came and went, social media was born, the website(s) evolved, and two decades later what started as a simple site to update some occasional readers has become the go-to source in Division III basketball.

There are preseason All-America selections who weren't even born yet when D3hoops.com was launched.

We aren’t ones to toot our own horns. We do this because Division III student-athletes deserve to have a bright spotlight. However, we would like to salute others. D3hoops.com and its sister websites wouldn’t be here if not for the assistance of sports information directors, coaches, administrators, and student-athletes -- too many to mention. Writers, staff members, and others willing enough to work for little to no pay have been invaluable as well. The countless hours working on what would be defined as a hobby for the senior staff is a lot easier thanks to those individuals.

There isn't a counter on the front page anymore, but the front page of D3hoops.com still gets loaded about 1.8 million times per year, and we appreciate everyone who visits, whether daily, multiple times a night, a couple times a week or only when March approaches.

To learn more about the past, present, and even future of D3hoops.com, watch this segment from Sunday night’s Hoopsville. Dave McHugh had Coleman on to talk about the anniversary and Coleman even dressed up for the occasion.