Never Forget Where You're From

It’s been way too long since I’ve written something here. I’m unfortunately a lot closer to living out the “prediction” I made in my first post that I would care to admit, but it’s not for a lack of trying. But as anyone can tell you, holiday stuff can eat up your time before you realize it’s gone, be it visiting with friends and family, shopping, or having rage-strokes due to dealing with other people’s “holiday spirit”.

But as the holiday wraps up, something has popped up in national news that hits very close to home for me, figuratively and literally. For those who aren’t familiar with the Steubenville Big Red rape trial, and would like more information than my original link provided, a simple Google search of “#OccupySteubenville” or “#OpRollRedRoll” will give you a more accurate picture of the cultural shitstorm brewing not 10 miles from my hometown. Steubenville’s a city I’ve personally lived in. I have family there, and a lot of my time growing up was spent there. It’s a city I have strong feelings about, and unfortunately, right now Steubenville is taking a beating.

For better or worse, I'll love you forever. (via)

To read the comment section of most any story related to the rape trial is to read some harsh judgments. The phrase “ugly little town” is one you’ll find peppered throughout. You may also find some folks (who, granted, have never set foot in the Ohio Valley and couldn’t have picked out Steubenville on a map before August 2012) that are ready and willing to condemn absolutely everyone who lives there, or has lived there, as if by having a 43952 ZIP, you’re automatically complicit in years of oppressive garbage.

It’s knee-jerk, unfair, and complete bullshit.

While Steubenville certainly had its own reputation prior to the events of August 11, the reputation was built years before those who are currently standing up for change could have done anything about it. Those who are standing up now want a different future for the area as a whole, and are doing things on their own to make it happen, whether it’s starting a business in their hometown or taking some of the best things about the Ohio Valley and sharing them with a larger audience. To lump those people in as “ugly” couldn’t be more incorrect. If those football players are "products of their environment", so are these guys. Also, it took me literally 6 seconds to come up with those 2 examples, because I went to school with these guys myself. That's just one school, in one town in the area, with guys that graduated within 3 years of each other. 

And, yes, the football culture is abhorrent. Always has been, really. Hell, even I saw it as a football player, and I only played for 2 years, and I absolutely sucked. (Seriously. Good luck finding game film with me in it that doesn't involve me standing on the sidelines. You’d have better luck finding a shrink-wrapped copy of “Bandai Stadium Events”.) Unfortunately, it’s taken help from outside the Ohio Valley for many to gain a full view of the culture at hand. Taken from experience, while not forgivable, and certainly not an excuse, it’s hard to know one may be doing something wrong if it’s all they’ve ever known.

I can’t say if I would be outside Steubenville City Hall tomorrow if I still lived at home. While I support the cause, I’ve spent a large majority of my life afraid of my own shadow. For those who will be there, I can only say this: The eyes of the world will be on Steubenville tomorrow. Help us overcome these unfounded stereotypes, and show the world that there’s more to the Ohio Valley than blind eyes and corruption.

Please.

5 Years Later

I’m sitting here, getting ready to post this, unshaven and bummed out. This is the first post I’ve done that actually depressed me.

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5 years ago today, West Virginia’s football team may have suffered the biggest loss in the program’s history. A loss so stinging, it's only referred to by the final score of the game, 13-9. The only thing that stings worse is that the loss happened at the hands of the Pittsburgh Panthers, WVU’s oldest rival. It gave further credence to those who believed (and still do) that WVU’s football program isn’t any better than Pitt’s, and has given every Pitt fan an absolute argument ender. For example:

Me – “Your team hasn’t been relevant nationally since Dan Marino was there.”

Pitt Fan – “13-9.”

Me – “FUCK!” (grit more of my teeth away)

So, with December 1^st being the 5 year anniversary of one of my last living nightmares, I wanted to do something to commemorate it. With some valuable help, I was able to string together something of an oral history to give the idea of what was going through the minds of both Pitt and WVU fans before, during, and after the game.

Before we start, I would like to give a sincere thanks to Justin Myslinsky, Erik Hughes, Tim Taggart, and Steve Saner for their input. I know Thanksgiving is past and all, but I’m thankful and grateful to have friends that will take time out of their busy lives and schedules to jot down their memories to be read by maybe 30 people. So again, thank you. I show you my gratitude by not editing out anything you wrote, as hard as it was. I might have added a personal note or two, but I left everything as it was sent to me.

Here goes.

WVU came into the game with a 10-1 record, ranked #2 in the BCS, and only needed a win at home over Pitt, who was a 4-touchdown underdog and was 4-7 coming into the game.

Rush:  I had just gotten and accepted my job offer to Tucson the day before, and now it was time to watch my favorite football team clinch a spot in the title game at Pitt’s expense. For me? It was party time.

Myslinsky:  At the time I lived right off of the Kent State campus. Alicia and I were entertaining guests that night (drinking games, of course) Our guests were hesitant to come over, knowing that i might lose my shit, seeing WVU go to a National Championship game.

WVU fans were expecting the very same thing.

Hughes: I got to Morgantown the night before the game and hit the bars with my friend (a WVU grad) and got tons of shit when my friend outed me as a Pitt fan. We started tailgating early the next morning with 2 more WVU grads, one of them took leave from his army outpost in Germany just to see WV clinch a spot in the national championship again against their rivals.

Saner: Fuck that game. That is all. (Ed. Note: This is the extent of Steve’s contribution. After writing and researching this post, I don’t blame him even a little bit.)

Hughes:  I listened to all the conversations about the inevitable national championship game and met some people who already booked hotel rooms in New Orleans. The guys I was tailgating with all bought "road to New Orleans" t-shirts to celebrate the big win. I wasn't confident Pitt would even cover the spread when we headed into the stadium.

It seemed like even most Pitt fans seemed to accept what was surely coming:

Taggart:  Thinking back to day the first thing that comes to mind is when Erik called me in the middle of the afternoon trying to get me and Saner to come down. Told him Pitt was a 28 1/2 point underdog and that I was not coming to that hell hole. Later on, Saner calls to get me to come down to watch the game. After declining his invite several times he said, “Get some beer. Come down. I won't make fun of you.”

Myslinsky:  I assured our guests that i had already accepted Pitt’s fate that night and that I would stay calm.

Rush:  Pitt hadn’t won a home game in 14 months going in! Their backup QB was playing! HOW COULD THIS GO WRONG?!?!?!?!

It went spectacularly wrong. One seeming commonality, though…

Hughes:  Really the game was just a blur. The only thing I really remember was Shady McCoy carving up the WVU defense (despite some phantom holding penalties), the Panther defense controlling the "high-powered" WVU offense.....and lots of mullets.

Taggart:  Also for me the game is somewhat a blur but I do remember sitting on the couch saying to myself, “Win the first 5 min and then the next 5 and so on and so on.”

Rush:  The Coors Light helped with me not remembering much of the game, I’m sure, but I don’t. I remember LeSean McCoy gutting the D, Pat White getting hurt…

Myslinsky:  White hurt his thumb? Bud, you’re playing for a National Title birth against a 3 win team (Ed. Note: Pitt was 4-7). SUCK IT UP.

Rush:  My apartment went from raucous to semi-raucous to drunken hush to “So how’s Pitt going to gift this game?”

West Virginia had plenty of opportunities to get something going, but couldn’t. The reasons for that are debatable:

Myslinsky: Pitt fucking brought the 1980 Hugh Green defense that night and WVU couldn’t do shit.

Hughes:  It wasn't until the 4th quarter that I realized this wasn't going to be a blowout, but being a Pitt fan since birth, all I could think of was how Pitt was going to blow it down the stretch. I just kept waiting for White, Slaton, or the hairlip FB (Ed. Note: Awwwww.) to break a run but it never happened.

Taggart: As Erik said in his story, when the game got to the 4th qtr. you thought “How they gonna screw this up?” I remember a big punt return (Ed. Note: Noel Devine ran a kickoff back to the Pitt 33 with a little over 6 minutes left in the game)  and Pat White returning and saying “Welp, they made a hell of an effort but not meant to be.”

The gift never happened, and Pitt punter Dave Brytus ran out of his own end zone as time expired to give WVU their last 2 points and end the game. WVU had blown their greatest chance to make themselves a nationally relevant program, and had blown it to Pitt.

Taggart: Was shocked as hell when they win and then my phone started going crazy with calls and text messages.

Myslinsky: When the game came to an end and the scoreboard read PITT 13 WVU 9. I almost passed the fuck out. Screaming, jumping, motherfucking everything about West-By-God. Then i threw open the door ran to the meatheads apartment upstairs, waltzed in like I owned the place, screaming God knows what. They all cheered and we chugged a beer, I said “I fucking hate Ohio State, but who the fuck cares, WVU ain’t shit!” (Ed. Note: WVU’s loss allowed Ohio State a spot in the BCS National Championship Game.)

Then I called my dad, numerous times, couldn’t get through because all of his buddies were ringing his phone off the hook. Finally I got through, that moment was the single greatest conversation I have ever had with my Dad. I told him it was the greatest thing I had ever seen, Pitt-wise. He said it was right up there with the Heisman and ‘76 title. I’m pretty sure we both cried a bit. (Only wish is that i was with him that night). Then I called my boss who was an OSU fan, I think he gave me a raise on the spot.

Hughes: I was still waiting for something bad to happen until Pitt took a safety as time expired and the game was over but after looking around at the distraught WVU faithful I knew that screaming "Hail to Pitt!!!!" was a bad idea. I tried my best to hide my smile from the stadium back to the car but it was impossible.

The plan was to hit High Street after the game and party all night to the glow of burning sofas but nobody wanted to go with me. I walked up and down the street but it was empty except for a few sad, drunken fans and a ton of cops. The city was prepared for their biggest victory since Major Harris (who I saw signing autographs at a campus bookstore before the game) was at QB but there was no joy in hoopieville.

Rush: Needless to say, there wasn’t much celebration in store, and the fact that I drank progressively faster as the game went on caught up with me. I trudged/stumbled upstairs to sleep it off. I was woken up at about 3am by my roommate and some of his friends who had come to visit him for the weekend. When I went out to check and see what was going on, my roomie said, “Come on! Hang out with us! I know you’re still upset about WVU losing…” It was like they had lost all over again. My roommate later said “Dude, it looked like your face fell off.”

It may not be the greatest upset in college football history. It may not have even been the biggest upset that year (OH HAI APPALACHIAN STATE). But it is a night that both teams and their fanbases will remember for a long time.

Myslinsky: Oh what a night it was. One I will never forget. WVU might have been the better team that year, but PITT is FOREVER the better PROGRAM 

Ed. Note (via)

and they proved it that night. 13-9 HAIL TO PITT.

Taggart: It is still shocking because I don't believe anything like that will happen again. Huge expectations on one side and a huge underdog rises up and fights back.

Saner: Fuck that game. That is all. (Ed. Note: I thought it fit here too.)

@johnathanrush