Does prestige matter when it comes to our UMM athletic programs? When this town's leaders went to work to get a higher ed. institution here, quite a long time ago, prestige certainly mattered. You could just hear the champagne glasses clicking when we accomplished the U of M branch. The quintessential "plum." The University of Minnesota!
I know those early advocates feared a "junior college" like it was the plague. I would never have been bothered by such a thing. But we all had to look up to our prestigious leaders. And so we went along with the cheerleading for this U of M branch with its stock-in-trade in the liberal arts.
Sports? Most certainly that would be out front. Quite in line with our prideful air. The big and prestigious U of M would see to it we had athletic programs worthy of notice. Yes we were tiny by comparison to the "main U," a term we were never supposed to use. But surely we'd be on a level to compete with the mongrel (non-University) colleges of the Upper Midwest.
The colleges came to be known as "state universities," for example in St. Cloud. And we could beat St. Cloud. Our enrollment might be a mere fraction of St. Cloud's, no matter. I personally attended games where we beat St. Cloud. The high-profile sport of football, we indeed built "creds." And it really did matter to a lot of the local denizens. It was proof that the early movers and shakers on behalf of getting the U here were so richly deserving of credit.
I was close to UMM sports for a long time when we held our own vs. the state universities. The buses would come here with athletes from the likes of Winona State, Moorhead State, you know the rest. We felt affinity.
The UMM fans could sometimes be nasty and disrespectful. But hey we "meant business" in these affairs. I personally think some of the nasty behavior with crude language could have been put aside. Without attending UMM sports today, I nevertheless am certain that our fans behave in far more civilized fashion. I feel quite certain of it, maybe based on general cultural trends. Social drinking was quite the norm in the 1970s. Not at all today.
I congratulate totally the students of today to the extent they are more restrained and respectful, as I feel convinced they are. But things are never perfect. The old prestige and legitimacy of competing with the state universities and other such institutions is gone. We thought having the "big bad U" here would guarantee basic prestige. The kind of prestige as understood by people with a strong interest in collegiate sports.
Does the local citizenry care all that much that we have dropped a few rungs on the ladder? I will make no assumptions on that. Can I still assume we're all still pleased as punch to have a branch of the U here? I will assume that. The U presumably has boffo resources. Heaven help us if it does not. The U of M? Why is our UMM Cougar men's basketball team playing this opponent called "Oak Hills Christian?" Shouldn't this question pop to the foreground of your thoughts?
You know, back when UMM made the step (down) to the UMAC, I was with the newspaper and had the opportunity to interview our athletic director. UMM through most of its history did not have an actual sports information department - that's just a fact - so I felt the license myself to go out there and perform journalism. I will readily admit it was hit-and-miss. No one made a big issue of it.
So I'm interviewing the UMM AD and just had to ask something. Maybe my question would seem a little quaint now. It was not at the time. I asked that given UMM's reputation as a 100 percent secular-oriented place with a progressive political bent, would it be uncomfortable to start dealing with schools that are overtly religious, like right in the school's name?
We started seeing names like "Pillsbury Baptist" on UMM schedules. Baptist? How would that reconcile with UMM's crusading air toward things like gay rights?
The AD did not ask me to leave his office. I can name names here - it was Mark Fohl. He understood my question and by that I'm indicating that he understood the premise of my question. So he didn't reject it out of hand. Respectfully he said "if we all just stick to the business of sports we'll be fine." Perhaps a slight paraphrase there. That was the gist of it. It's nice if we can all get along.
Fast-forward to today: I do not think UMM wishes to stand for anything political as I think the priority is to just survive. Oh we'll still have "grievance majors" on our campus. Shhh, not too loud. But we're existing out here in rural western Minnesota where Republicans absolutely dominate and our Republican congressperson is getting a challenge from the right. Seems to get more extreme all the time.
As for our state legislators, of what political party are they? Well, you know. Jeff Backer was shifted away from us, and he drinks the Kool-Aid more than anyone. Well, we voted for him, voted out the Democrat Jeff McNamar. We voted out Collin Peterson. How in hell did a Democrat like Peterson ever get elected to congress from here anyway? We are now totally MAGA.
So Steve Boyd could become our new congressperson. And if Trump is elected president again, our very nation, or the nation we once knew, could implode into something unrecognizable. I only hope and pray we do not see a significant loss of life. But all bets are off. I have persistently sought to ring warning bells. Nothing works. I have lost friends. I am feeling no Christmas spirit.
People will say "well Brian, get lost then."
I'm not sure what to do. But I feel sad that UMM sports teams now play the likes of "Oak Hills Christian." If I were the type of person who used expletives, I'd avail myself now.
Our UMM men's basketball team defeated "Oak Hills Christian" 95-69 Thursday night. Who gives a rip about the outcome? We are the University of Minnesota. But of course the overall U has been rudderless over the recent past. No competent leadership for a long time, just treading water it seems. Maybe no one cares.
Out here in Morris on the barren tundra as it were, "no one cares" should be on the water tower.
It would be a good guess that Oak Hills Christian is populated by people who are MAGA. We learn that it has an enrollment of about 100. Where is it located? Look, I don't give a rip.
UMM music for holidays
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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