The Unseen Here and
Now . . .
Stuart
Revercomb
Stuart
Revercomb is a marketing consultant and joyously married father of four
children. He seems to remember someone once telling him he ought to be
a writer. "The Unseen Here and Now" -- Thursdays.
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"Thursday's Fare"
NOV. 25, 1999
Go Hokies!
As you can see by that big ol' orange "V" on top of that hat to your right there I'm a Virginia fan. Always have been, and barring any late life memory demise or latent genetic anomaly -- Mom did go to Carolina -- always will be. When I searched the house high and low for a photo to represent yours truly on a weekly basis, the one thing I knew I would NOT do was use a picture with that big ol' V stuck on my forehead. No preconceptions for the reader I thought. Hell, if I'm a Hokie and I see some guy with a "V" on his head I'm probably not reading or buying or whatevering to whatever he's offering -- I don't care how much he's smilin'.
But it came down to a choice between two pictures. The other was a shot of me right after the birth of my first child -- in which I am also smiling to beat the band -- but have the added touch of a tear or two in my eye. Not that it isn't a good likeness of an otherwise forgettable face, but a man doesn't go plastering a picture of himself in the teary mode on the World Wide Web if he can't explain the context. Thus the picture with the allegiance displayed. Several readers very early on offered to send T's to add to the brim to make the cap more in style. But I respectively declined.
Rivalries are interesting. I went to both Hampden-Sydney College and UVa and dated a girl from VirginiaTech while in school. I later married into a family of ardent Hokies, my wife having attended the institution of orange and maroons, uh, maroon. Her father was arguably the biggest Hokie fan to walk the planet. In his lifetime, he likely lambasted the Wahoos more than any one individual on record. Carl Trippeer served in the military and started at quarterback for the Air Force Academy and was the kind of American who would have collared the average flag burner by the scruff of the neck and launched him into the nearest river if he had had the opportunity. But when UVa played the Russian National team in a basketball exhibition at the height of the Cold War, Carl pulled for -- you guessed it -- The Ruskies.
Blood runs thin in these parts.
Which brings us to the present situation regarding the Hokie's recent success upon the gridiron. It would be interesting to conduct a poll to see how many graduates of THE University of Virginia are actually pulling for the Hokie football team. Now we're talking men here, not females. They're far too sensible and loving and most of the ones I've polled, regardless of allegiance, will always pull for the other team when they're not playing their own. This is not the case, of course, with women on my wife's side of the family, who'd just as soon all Wahoos would move just a bit north and west to join their heathen brothers at West Virginia University. But I digress.
Men, on the other hand, seem to hold more of a grudge and I am here to say that I, too, am having trouble getting in touch with my kinder, gentler, feminine side as regards pulling for the Hokie football team.
As injuries and regrettable coaching mistakes combined to lead my beloved Wahoos to the exit door early this year, I began to take note of the Hokies' success, and knowing already that the schedule was a little less than challenging, I began to look down the road at places that:
A) They might be derailed, and
B) I might be able to actually pull for them in case they weren't.
The first such place that arrived was Syracuse and because I'm not an Orangeman fan by any stretch of the imagination I ALMOST found myself pulling for Tech. I mean it was close, real close. I must have been suffering a fit of melancholy because I was just about to hum the bars to that great fight song, but before I could say 'Hokie High' I snapped out of it and as I pulled for the Orangemen they crashed and burned and became the pulp they often are in Blacksburg.
Oh well, I thought, there's always Miami down the road -- no way to pull for those guys. I'll muster up some support of the old in state school yet. (Pardon me for looking past James Madison University, Rutgers, University of Alabama-Birmingham, My Own Dismal Wahoos and Miss Gin's Finishing School.)
WVU was, as I knew my Hokie brethren were also aware, a dangerous spot in the schedule even in their pathetic form of late. Strange things happen in West Virginia University and that stadium up there is no exception. Almost happened, too, but my 2-year-old put her hand on the screen covering the ball right before the Hokie kicker launched it and blew all the negative Karma being sent by 98% of all UVa males and the ball split the uprights for the miracle Tech win.
That was O.K. I thought, Miami's next week and I'll probably sincerely pull for the Hokies -- and the way my season's been going they'll lose.
Problem was, I almost could pull for the Hokies during the first half as Miami went up 10-0 but then I faltered and began to wish this Hokie thing would be over and done with. Before I knew it, the thought of pulling for the Hurricanes for one game didn't seem so bad and BAM! Tech slaughtered them 41-10. Do you think I ought to tell Frank Beamer about this?
I then looked to Temple. It had recent history on its side but got tromped 62-7. Yes, I did pull for the Owls. You can't fault me there. They're the Owls, for heaven's sake. That leaves good ol' Boston College. Heck, Doug "The Nicest Guy Who Ever Played The Game" Flutie played there. I've got to pull for them, don't I? Maybe somewhere within this Orange and Blue heart I'll find a little of the burnt variety and pull for those Hokies yet.
If by chance you're watching the BIG GAME on Jan. 4 and the Hokies fight valiantly, clinging to a lead in the fourth quarter as Florida State struggles to keep up, and on the last play of the game the Seminole Hail Mary bounces off three guys and then into the hands of Peter "I Thought Everyone Got A 95% Discount" Warrick, then you'll know a couple of us Wahoos finally up and did the right thing shouting faithfully and finally ... GO HOKIES!