This Saturday at 3:30, our peers will take the court against UNC Chapel Hill at the RBC Center. Bear with me for a minute and imagine 20,000 Wolfpack fans losing their voices and going crazy as our boys walk onto the floor — that is a place I want to be.
I would never encourage outright violence toward another group of people for going to a sad and pathetic excuse for a University. I would definitely not encourage anything like what started May 28, 1888 in Glasgow, Scotland, when Celtic F.C. and Rangers F.C. took the pitch for a friendly soccer match. Since that fateful date the two clubs have developed a fierce rivalry that goes well beyond soccer.
Scotland, as you may know, is roughly divided into two main religious sects, the Anglicans (the Church of Scotland) and the Roman Catholics. Since the schism of the two Churches in 1534 under the guidance of Henry VIII, the two sects have bitterly feuded with one another.
As is the case with many hate-filled struggles, the malice spilled over into every aspect of society. Soccer matches ceased to be athletic competitions — instead, they became proxy wars for the religious groups.
The Old Firm, as the struggle between the teams is called, is riddled with a history of violence. Around the matches, Protestant supporters of Rangers will march the streets of Glasgow decked in Orange and waving Union Jacks Ð in loving memory of the ejection of the Catholic monarchy by William of Orange in 1688. Likewise, Catholic supporters of Celtic walk together in crowds of green and white.
In order to truly put the hate into perspective, here are a few crimes from the police blotter following a May 1999 match:
– twenty year old, shot in the chest with a crossbow leaving a Celtic pub
– twenty-five year old, wearing a green shirt, beaten by four assailants outside a Chinese carryout
– sixteen year old Protestant boy, stabbed to death leaving an Irish pub
I don’t think any one of us would ever condone this sort of violence. Unbridled hate based on nothing more than race or creed is tribalism at best. But that does not mean I am going to show UNC anything but animosity and dislike. The Bible says we have to love our neighbor — it does not say we can’t despise everything they represent.
In the case of Chapel Hill, I pretty much despise it all. I mean seriously now, can you have any respect for a University that is represented by Rameses the ram?
But to the credit of those deranged fans, they display an otherworldly sort of passion for their team. If half of us cared about Wolfpack sports that much, just imagine how spirited and enthused our games would be.
Therefore, I will take this weekend as a wonderful opportunity to display excessive amounts of hooliganism. I hope you will join me in marching about in Red and verbally disparaging those amongst us who choose to wear that childish blue color.
Go Pack!
E-mail Russell your thoughts on the rivalry with UNC-Chapel Hill to [email protected].
