There’s quite a strong rivalry-atmosphere in Indiana when it comes to college sports. We all love to watch the Irish and the Trojans football, IU and Purdue put on a good show in any sport, IU and UK basketball, can’t get much better than that!…I’ve seen Ball State and Toledo where in a last second TD, those crazy Cardinals fans tore down the uprights and, carrying them down the street to campus, tossed it (and their naked bodies) into the pond at the campus entrance next to LaFollette dorms. I saw my own alma mater Indiana State beat IU in basketball during my freshman year.
The best, however, is The Monon Bell Game, which I saw when I visited Wabash College in 2002 as a sophomore. It was enormous – that is, relative to the size of the two schools involved. Wabash College and DePauw University go head-to-head in one of the oldest continuous rivalries in the nation. If you haven’t seen this one, then you haven’t seen a rivalry!
Indiana is full of great rivalries, no doubt.
But the Rocky Mountain Showdown, out here in Colorado, might be the best I’ve seen yet. Here’s a few keywords to set the scene: tailgating…drunken games of cornhole…Mile High Stadium…vodka and cranberry juice…more cornhole…CSU fans in green, CU fans in gold…I wore gold…my shirt (I bought it there) pictured a buffalo (CU), um, on top of a ram (CSU) I guess I could say, with a quote about, uh, um, how can I say it gingerly, it says something about how the rams seem to “exhale with authority” the game…CSU fans were downright nasty to anyone wearing gold…CU fans and their rude chants and school songs on constant loop throughout the ramps to the seats and in the stadium…IN SHORT: CU vs. CSU was the best game of college football I’ve ever seen.
What does this have to do with the Colts…not much at all, but I don’t care. Anyone who wants to watch a passionate, heated rivalry between two non-ranked, but exceptional football schools needs to come to Denver and show up early. These fans were out at 6am for a 10am game. Find your way out to Denver next Labor Day weekend…you won’t be disappointed.