Archive for the ‘rivalry’ tag
Just One More
Ever since I left Ohio, back in 1990, I’ve had the same conversation every fall.
Me: GO BUCKEYES!!!
Non-Ohioan: I never knew you went to Ohio State.
Me: I didn’t
Non-Ohioan: …
When you try to explain that when you grow up in Ohio, you’re an Ohio State fan, they’ll give you the cursory nod as if they understand, but as every displaced Ohio native knows, they don’t. For others, the school, the history… the rivalry… is academic. They can read about it, they can listen to your stories even as your voice raises and your gestures grow emphatic with each curse you let slip, but they didn’t live it. And at a very early age we gave up trying to make them understand.
But that’s ok. This time of the year, this week leading up to this Saturday, the last Saturday before Thanksgiving… it’s for us. Well, us and those misguided people cheering for “that school up North”. Our friends and loved ones can join us in our revelry… or anguish, supporting us even without understanding the depths to which emotions permeate, but this time, this game, is solely for us.
What started at the border of two states, a fight over ownership of Toledo of all places, has transcended the years. The beginning may be long ago, 1835 to be exact, but every generation has it’s own years, it’s own games, to fuel the inveterate hatred.
Mine was an entire decade.
They got the ’90s, but I get the 2000s.
Just one more year.