UMBC wasn’t the first No. 16 seed to win — Harvard was

Harvard's Sarah Russell (left) hugged Laela Sturdy after Harvard beat Stanford 71-67 in the first round of the NCAA women's basketball tournemant in 1998.Susan Ragan/AP/File 1998

The University of Maryland-Baltimore was not the first No. 16 seed to take down a No. 1.

Harvard was.

The Harvard women’s basketball team was the first — and until Friday night, only — team to beat a No. 1 seed in the first round of the Division I NCAA Basketball Championships when it beat Stanford, 71-67, in the 1998 tournament.

So when UMBC became the first men’s team to accomplish the feat with a 74-54 win over No. 1 Virginia, the Crimson were happy to welcome them to the club.

Welcome to the club @UMBCAthletics! #SixteenOverOne https://t.co/ayqlOvko9h

— Harvard Basketball (@HarvardWBB) March 17, 2018

UMBC, in turn, gave credit where it was due.

“They laid the groundwork, it just took us 20 years to catch up,” the school’s Twitter account posted.

.@HarvardWBB was the first, seriously. Don’t ever forget that. They laid the groundwork, it just took us 20 years to catch up https://t.co/UPmd8yLzs9

— UMBC Athletics (@UMBCAthletics) March 17, 2018

Harvard ended up losing to Arkansas in the next round, 82-64. UMBC will face No. 9 Kansas State on Sunday.