No, I'm not going to talk about how my sister and I just plain don't get along. There's no perceived slight there, by the way, we're just different critters who happen to be genetically related. Anyway. Nope, this is about sports rivalries...to wit, college sports rivalries. I could wax poetic about Red Sox vs Yankees, but it's trite, and been done. No, instead I'm going to talk about the best rivalry I've ever experienced...the University of Arizona vs Arizona State University.
Arriving on campus for the first time, you go through something of a genetic change: "Welcome to the University of Arizona. Here's your ID. You now hate ASU." and it's true! Coming from Maine, I could care less about the rivalry. They didn't mean much to me. UMaine vs UNH? Sure, I could get behind that one. But U of A vs ASU? Whatever! Well, that certainly didn't last long. That rivalry was used in EVERYTHING, most notably the U of A vs ASU blood donor challenge. Yep, the Red Cross got in on the act, too! There was an enormous leader board in the middle of the campus mall, where there was a running tally kept of the number of pints of blood donated by each school. If U of A fell behind, you would hear conversations about how we couldn't let ASU win, and let's go donate blood! Really, it's genius marketing.
When I moved back to the East Coast (sorry, Arizona...I'm just a New England girl at heart!) to finish school, I was sorely disappointed to find that my new university (UMass Amherst) had NO rival to speak of. I mean, there's the usual pseudo-Yankees style rivalry with Boston College (I love two teams...my team, and whomever beats BC), but that's about it. I'm sure most of it stems from a serious lack of school spirit and no real powerhouse sport (Sorry, Coach!)As a huge sports fan, this was greatly disappointing to me.
I understand that a rivalry isn't all there is to sports, but it sure as hell makes it more fun!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment