College basketball has reached that point in the season when historic foes do battle for the invaluable prize of a year’s worth of bragging rights. Yes, it’s rivalry week. In the spirit of this week-long sports holiday, it is important to consider the art of the rivalry and its role—not just in sports, but in every day life.
Countless sports writers and analysts have discussed the greatest rivalries of all time, but each new discussion produces the same results: the grudge match between Duke and UNC, and the timeless battle for baseball dominance between the Yankees and the Red Sox. These are the standard answers to the question of the greatest rivalry, but the truth is that the greatest and most important rivalry is your rivalry.
For me, a West Virginia University legacy, the University of Pittsburgh is my inherited rival. My favorite team in college football will always be the West Virginia Mountaineers, and my second favorite team will always be whoever is playing Pitt at any given time. This is the true indicator of a great rivalry. If you reach the point where you hate your rival team almost as much as you love your favorite team, then you are in fact in a legitimate sports rivalry.
Great rivalries can turn the most tolerant people into hopeless bigots and lead even the clear-minded to the most absurd of judgments. Now that Peyton Manning has forced the proverbial monkey from his back with a Super Bowl win, the title of greatest quarterback without a ring belongs to Dan Marino. Good! Serves a Pitt grad right. In the heat of the 2004 presidential election, it didn’t matter how bad of a candidate George W. Bush was, as soon as John Kerry appeared in public in Red Sox gear he was about as likely to receive my vote as Jerry Falwell’s. Absurd? Perhaps, but that is what makes rivalries special.
Although GU basketball’s chance at revenge against Big East rivals Villanova won’t come until a week after the official “rivalry week,” students must look at the game for what it really is. The Wildcats were all that kept the Hoyas from establishing themselves as the team of the 80s, and for this alone they deserve our respectful hatred. The game is a week and a half away, but if you have friends at Villanova start talking a little trash now—it’s never too late to heckle a rival. If you don’t have friends at Villanova, then start working on your best anti-Wildcat cheer. The beauty of college sports isn’t just having a team to love for the rest of your life, it’s having a team to hate as well.
