But I sure like watching Kentucky basketball – so fast-paced, so thrilling, so exciting! The three-pointers, the dunks, the sound of “whoosh” as the ball sweeps only the net. It’s my kind of game – much more conducive to my thrill-seeking preferences than the slower paces of baseball and football (though I have been known to get excited at an occasional football or baseball game or two).
Of course, if Louisville happens to win this weekend, as a dutiful Kentuckian I suppose I will root for Louisville in the finals. But right now my heart is with the Wildcats.
I think that Wildcat fever has emanated so much throughout the state that being a fan is just an essential part of being a Kentuckian. Making this point is really the purpose of this post. I’ll give you a perfect example.
I recently graduated with my master’s degree in communication from Northern Kentucky University (go Norse!). I spent a little over four years there earning this hard-earned degree. Anyway, there was a certain communication professor on campus that would become furious if he saw a student wearing any type of spirit wear that wasn’t NKU garb. I know this because this became a topic of conversation one evening in one of my classes.
It got me to thinking whether I had ever committed such an infraction. And indeed I had. Just the week before I had attended class wearing a University of Kentucky t-shirt. Good thing I didn’t run into that particular professor!
The thing is, though, it really didn’t occur to me that wearing a “Kentucky” shirt in any way countered my allegiance to NKU. It was just a given that as Kentuckian the very fabric of my being entailed that I don “Kentucky” attire. Not that I didn’t have NKU t-shirts and sweatshirts. I did. And I made sure to wear those plenty to class from then on. Of course I’m fond of NKU. Just like I have nothing against Louisville. It’s just that I assume most Kentuckians by nature of their very being “bleed blue.”
Now, as I say this, NKU is preparing to move from Division II to Division I in the next couple of years. I have to ask myself – in the event that NKU ever plays Kentucky, which team will I cheer on? Will I be torn? After all, NKU was an essential part of my life all those years. NKU did give me the piece of paper (which I traded oodles of cash for).
Or what if Kentucky ever took on the University of Dayton, where I received my first degree? Would I cheer on the Flyers? I certainly did when the Flyers made the Elite Eight in 1984 (when I was a freshman in college). Now I’m seriously torn.
Well, I’ll just assume those matchups will never happen. So I’ll never have to decide. Why worry about something that’s purely hypothetical? For now I’ll keep my head in the current game. This weekend’s current game, that is.
And I just know that at my house this weekend, we’ll be in Wildcat country!
