What if Emporia someday were a little like Alliance, Ohio? I think it’d be pretty sweet myself.
Recently, I was looking through The Sporting News’ annual college football preview issue, and I flipped to the Division III preview section. Owning a healthy amount of ignorance about D-3 — OK, I don’t follow it at all — I was only vaguely aware of Mount Union College. But Mount Union and its home, the town of Alliance, are discussed extensively in The Sporting News, and for good reason.
Mount Union’s football team has won 10 of the last 16 D-3 national titles, and Alliance — a town of about 25,000 southeast of Cleveland — has responded to that success with avid interest and adulation.
The Purple Raiders (yes, that’s their mascot — no comment) are genuine celebrities in Alliance. Every February, the magazine notes, the town holds a community night where fans pack the college cafeteria for a recap of the season, and wait in line “for hours” for player autographs.
Rabid fandom in a town of about 25,000? Sounds like fun to me. Doesn’t it to you?
After reading about Alliance’s allegiance to its powerhouse football program, I thought, “How cool would it be if Emporia had a local team that the town not just supported, but lived and breathed?”
Oh, Emporia teams these days have had some sustained success — Emporia High’s wrestling team, most notably, has been consistently elite for most of the last 30 years or so — and Emporia, the town, often delivers its fair share of fan support when a team earns it. But right now, there’s not a team at EHS or Emporia State that, year after year, just captivates and conquers the entire town with its sustained, high-level, clockwork success.
As the Spartans and Hornets prepare to start the school year and field their respective groups of 2009-10 teams, it’s fun to dream about what things would be like if one team could hold that much power over this town every single year.
Why is it so cool for an entire city to be enthralled by one team? Because, on the periphery of things that are more important — but also more divisive — sports have a unifying power. At a time when so many things divide both America and Emporia — around here, those include a smoking ban, the city’s uses of tax money, things like that — sports bring locals together. Everyone who cares to take an interest wants the local team to win. When the local team does win — and wins more, and then more — and everyone’s interested, it brings people together, at long last, on something. That’s always a great thing.
We’re a ways away from that though, obviously. Think, for instance, about the tremendous success the ESU baseball team has enjoyed lately. Thirty-five wins in a row in 2008. An eyelash short of a national championship this past season.
Yet, the performance at the gate was far short of the performance on the field. It’s fair to say Keith Hernandez had a good chance of walking down Commercial Street without being recognized, let alone being asked for an autograph. Local sports bars didn’t serve novelty menu items dedicated to the Hornets, like a Shortell Shake or a Glennen Green Salad topped with carrots, croutons and Conner Crumbles. You didn’t usually walk into Natasha’s on a Saturday night and hear lively, semi-sober discussions about whether Fornelli should’ve gone to Soto for the ninth or let Anthony finish the game.
Those are the kinds of things that happen with Kansas basketball in Lawrence, and even did with Chiefs football in Kansas City during the ’90s. That’s what happens when a team is so captivating that the locals have a one-track mind, can’t stop talking about that last game and can’t wait for the next one.
As far as which programs could someday become the “it” team of Emporia — well, let’s be honest: because of the general sports predilections of the country and region, that kind of widespread appeal is probably going to have to be generated by a baseball, football or basketball team.
The Hornet baseball team seems to be doing everything in its power to draw the right kind of attention to itself. But college baseball is a niche market, and it will take a whole lot more winning to get the entire town stoked. Could the EHS football program or one of the ESU basketball programs, for instance, someday win — well, if not 10 championships in 16 years, something that’s consistently great enough to generate enough interest to make everyone’s emotions hinge on their season?
For now, it’s just a dream, something to imagine and smile about as another athletic year gets started. But if an Emporia team could someday win big consistently enough, again and again, to capture this town the way Alliance embraces its Purple Raiders, this could be one fun place.
Comments
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beth (anonymous) says...
Do you realize that ESU's average football attendance last year was 4,495 per game and Mount Union's was 3,792 per game. BTW - the Lady Hornet basketball team averaged 2051 to rank fourth in the country. It's the 12th straight year ESU has been in the top six in the nation.
August 11, 2009 at 4:48 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
eldiablo (anonymous) says...
My advice?
Move to Lawrence.
August 11, 2009 at 9:39 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
seriouslyfolks (anonymous) says...
Is "it" some kindy new sportin' Eevent? Cuz if it is I'm excited cuz sports is important. Not so much the playin' of em' but the watchin' and eatin' hotdogs and whatnot. Big foam hats and gloves with team logos on em' is important too. Most things about it is important if you ask me. Cuz I think so anyway.
Seriously R. Folks
Future sports writer? Maybe.
August 11, 2009 at 10:16 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
yev_kassem (anonymous) says...
I get what you are saying Joey, but that is alot easier said than done. Do you think that coach Higgins, or Schneider don't want to win 10 out of 16? Believe me, they are trying. It is so incredibly difficult to win one, let alone 10, which is exactly why that article is in Sporting News, because of how improbable that is.
Emporians do a fairly good job of supporting their teams, even in down years. We may not constantly talk about them at the water cooler but they are discussed.
August 12, 2009 at 10:27 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
nmse_s (anonymous) says...
Seriously,
If you become a sports writer/fan, I'll be your number one fan!! I can just picture you with a hard hat on with the double drink holder and the straws going to your mouth while waving a foam finger, wearing face paint from your face to your waist line, wearing nothing but shorts in -30 degree weather. To top it off it would be great to see you out there chest-bumping the man sitting next to you!!
August 12, 2009 at 1:08 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
justthefacts (anonymous) says...
It all just depends on what your definition of "it" is.
August 13, 2009 at 11:53 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )