I love my school. Baker Center is always a blossoming beacon of student activity every day. Court Street bricks have witnessed some of my most memorable times as a Bobcat. I even appreciate Chubb Hall and the woman who always snarls at me when I argue that a debit card should not face that ridiculous surcharge every time I pay my student bill (if you happen to be this lady, allow me to get you a Chipotle burrito or flowers or something because this rivalry is four-years strong now).
Athens is almost perfect. Almost. I’m heading out of town this weekend to visit West Virginia University to see if I want to spend even more money I do not have on a graduate-level education. The main difference between the schools? Athletics. Not so much skill but more so student involvement.
Picture this: Peden Stadium a few weeks ago during the Miami game. Instead of the atrocious “artwork” in front of Walter Hall (trust me, I did an iArt paper on the piece, and to me it resembles a voting ballot from back in the day when you had to poke your vote into the card), imagine a tailgate full of students with signs, body paint and an almost-certain point of intoxication that would make Hunter S. Thompson proud.
I want to be able to go to The Convo with three of my buddies wearing nothing but the letters O-H-I-O on our chests on a day that Yetis would likely be roaming Richland Avenue. How amazing would it be if we had die-hard fans that live, sleep, eat and scream at every game until their lungs feel like they smoked a carton of Pall Malls?
Look, I get that we are in the MAC and we are most definitely considered a mid-major school. But just a few years ago, our basketball team took the No. 1 seed University of North Carolina Tar Heels into overtime and almost pulled the upset of the tourney. Even in that somber defeat, I was proud to be a Bobcat.
Football is on the up-and-up too. We beat Penn State last season and Court Street mobbed out for a brief 20 minutes. I remember getting free shots courtesy of J Bar and singing “Stand Up and Cheer” with my drunken peers. No one was angry, sad or upset, we were all just proud Bobcats basking in our team’s glory.
I know that sports aren’t for everyone, and it’s totally fine if you couldn’t care less. But at the end of the day, you probably should. Part of every student’s tuition funds our athletic teams. This is why the university offers us free admission to all the NCAA sports we have to offer. Why pay for something and then not go? It’s like having a great night out with a girl you have a huge thing for and then just when she leans in for the kiss you say you have to go to bed because of an exam. Lamesauce.
Phil Morehead is a senior studying health services administration and a columnist for The Post. What’s your favorite OU sporting event to attend? Email him at pm189309@ohiou.edu.
