Apparently, it's a birthday, but not for a person, or a country, but a sport. One-hundred and fifty years ago today two college teams competed for the first time.
The result: Rutgers beat New Jersey (now, Princeton...) 6 - 4.
According to NCAA.com, the game was much different than what we see on Saturdays (and sometimes, Fridays, Thursdays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays...). Rutgers and New Jersey actually played ten games--if you scored, you got a point, then a new "game" began, hence the 6 - 4 score.
Flash forward a century and a half and we have a multi-billion dollar industry. We have dreams fulfilled and dreams dashed, fanatical fans ecstatic and fans heartbroken, legends made and players forgotten. I never attended a college football game until I was in college. It wasn't a tradition for my dad to take us--he had passed long before. I never had that connection that some have.
But, I did go to many games while I was a student (probably because they were free...). I went to several games as an Aggie. They were not a good team back in 1984. I went to several games as a University of Utah student in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Once again, the teams were no where close to the caliber of team Coach Whittingham has now.
Since it wasn't a tradition going to games as a kid, taking my own children to games is not something they've grown up with. I don't know if the Taylor fandom will end with me. It's possible--my kids are more into electronic sports than "on the field" sports.
I wonder what the next half century will bring, or the next century. Will the game transform as much as it did when it was first played November 6th, 1869?
Time will tell.
No comments:
Post a Comment