Sunday, September 23, 2007
Battle for the Iron Skillet Gone Too Far?
Everyone knows of SMU's rivalry with the TCU Horned Frogs. Well this Saturday marked the 87th Battle for the Iron Skillet. And if anybody drove down to Fort Worth and paid around $30 for tickets, or if you're me and my friends get 4 tickets for $90 from scalpers, you would know that we lost 21 to 7. Yes, the fact that we lost is very saddening, but the thing that gets me the most is the sort of rivalry this has all become. Thursday night between midnight and 1am, a group of TCU students came to SMU to pull some pranks on our campus. As I eventually found out Friday afternoon when going to my friend's car in Moody garage, the TCU students wrote on several cars saying "TCU", "Go Frogs", or something of that caliber. Harmless, right? Then we come to find, as we started to back out of the parking space, that they also decided to let out the air of some tires. Try to imagine my friend's face when we saw his deflated back tire, in the middle of Moody parking garage, making him late for his Baylor departure. We tracked down some Park N' Pony officials who called in the vandalism over the dispatcher. They told us the vandalism has already been reported for over 30 cars from Moody. It amazes me that a simple football rivalry has grown over this past century into destroying others property. What has become of college rivalries? Why have they gotten so out of hand?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
You are right. It is sad that the Rivalry between SMU and TCU has come to vandalization. But TCU is not the only one in the wrong. Many SMU students went over to Fort Worth and pulled some of the same pranks, but even took it furthur by bleaching the grass on the TCU field, from the 35 yard line to the other 35 yd line, and wrote "Pony Up". Yes this is quite funny and honestly I"m glad someone has some School Pride/Spirit at SMU, but although you or I was not the one doing these pranks, I feel that we are responsible for our fellow classmates decisions, so why not deal with a little bit of vandalism that is harmless, and enjoy the school spirit and Iron Skillet Rivalry!
I understand why you would be upset about the whole deflated tires thing. I would be pretty upset as well. If you think that the stuff they did this week you should check in to some of the other college rivalry between teams like Texas and Texas A&M. The students from these schools literally hate each other and will go to whatever links to out-do the other during that week leading up to the game.
O ya and I wanted to know if you noticed how the field saturday was a different color between the 35 yard lines? That was because some of our students broke in and fertalized the field so that it was say read "Pony Up". They had to paint over half the field because of it. Hahaha, classic!!!
Friday night I talked to a nice policeman guarding the Blanton building (apparently the same one that documented all the damages on every car), and found out that the actions of the TCU fans was a class B misdemeanor. That night a few of my friends also happened to catch a few people trying to mark "TCU" on our field, until they were caught and arrested. Every prank has a line between "good clean fun" and "class B misdemeanor." In this case TCU definitely crossed the line. In my opinion, the band planting a diamond M on the field at TCU's prank is going to be hard to beat without vandalism. http://www.skiff.tcu.edu/SkiffWeb021700/footballfield.jpeg
People always take rivalries too far, just look at the animosity between the Yankees and Red Sox. There are always going to be fanatics, however most of them are in Europe and watch soccer instead. There's nothing more exciting to watch than two rival teams battling it out on the field, or court, however that's where it should stay.
I think rivalries can be fun, but do agree with andrew that there is definitely a line between fun and crime. I believe that a small rivalry brings out school spirit in students. This isn't a debate about who was "right" in doing whatever pranks were done, but about how far is too far. There is no need to vandalize students' property, like the cars in Moody, especially because that student might have no interest in a SMU/TCU game. As long as it is good, clean fun, spray paint and silly string won't hurt anyone.
Post a Comment