Army versus Navy football is one of the most storied and respected rivalries in American sports history, dating back to 1890. This year’s game will be played on December 11th. (Photo by U.S. Army Spc. Philip Diab)
Exploring the appeal, allegiance, and fandom of local, collegiate, and professional sports teams and rivalries
I was sitting in the front row of the hockey rink. The year is 1959 and I am eight years old watching Princeton play Cornell. A player broke his stick and handed me the blade as he skated past. The blade still hangs in my garage 61 years later. It was my first in-person sporting event. The excitement from that moment is still in my head. It is easy to understand why people like to attend sporting events. It’s the thrill and passion of “being there.” For me, I’ve been to many events ranging from Super Bowls, to baseball, basketball, and hockey championships, the America’s Cup, the Olympic Games, and countless high school and college games to watch my daughters compete. The most fun of all is watching long standing rivalries. The players seem to step up their efforts a notch, and interest by the fans is always elevated. There are many rivalries here in Maryland and around the USA. Sometimes passionate fans are as much fun to watch as the games. It makes me wonder why someone cheers for the Washington Nationals or the Baltimore Orioles, the Washington Football Team (nee Redskins) or the Baltimore Ravens, Georgetown Hoyas or Maryland Terrapins, Army or Navy, or the St. Mary’s Saints or the Severn Admirals?
Midshipmen celebrate a Navy score during a recent game versus Army. (Photo by U.S. Navy 1st Class James G. Pinsky)
Just how does a team earn fan loyalty? It’s understandable that a graduate of a college will have a lifelong affection for their teams. If you served in the Navy one assumes you will be pulling for the Midshipmen any time they play Army. Sports rivalries go back decades, even centuries. The most important game is the one you are about to watch. No matter how favored one team might be the outcome is never certain and that’s why sports are so fascinating. This fact reminds me of the 2018 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament when Annapolis resident and University of Maryland Baltimore County basketball coach, Ryan Odom, guided his team to an inspiring upset over the Number 1 seed, University of Virginia. It was the first time in tournament history that a Number 16 seed defeated a Number 1 seed. As that game progressed, the 16,000 fans in the arena cheered on the underdogs. The noise and encouragement helped the UMBC Retrievers take down Virginia. That victory reminded me why we watch sports. You just never know the outcome.
Fan interest probably starts at a young age. For my 10th birthday in 1960, my father took me to see a new baseball team named the Mets at the Polo Grounds in New York City. I’ve held a special place in my heart for the Mets ever since. In fact, 19 years later during my college years, the “Amazing Mets” won the World Series. One year later, the NY Knicks won the NBA Championship in a Game 7 showdown over the Los Angeles Lakers. I was lucky to have a seat behind the Knicks’ bench for that historic victory. I doubt Madison Square Garden has ever been louder than the moment the Knicks’ star center, Willis Reed, walked out on to the court after missing two games with an injury. That moment still brings tears to my eyes. The Knicks won one more championship three years later, but sadly, it has been a sorry story ever since. Maybe ownership and management makes a difference in performance and fan interest. The Knicks were perpetually at the bottom of the standings since their glory days in the early 1970s. This past season, they compete in the playoffs.
When the Washington Capitals won the franchise’s first Stanley Cup championship in 2018, fans filled the National Mall in D.C. for the celebratory parade. (Screenshot via WUSA9).
But take the Washington Football Team as another example. When Jack Kent Cooke, and his son John, owned the team they seemed to make the playoffs every year. I was a passionate fan and can proudly report I attended each of their Super Bowl victories. The team’s new stadium in Landover filled up with 92,000 people on Sunday afternoons and then a new owner came along…and the team’s performance and fan interest declined. The Cleveland Browns arrived in Baltimore in a dubious way created by a sickening void when the Colts left town. The Browns departed Cleveland and renamed their team the Ravens. The whole sequence of events felt untidy. Then the Ravens started wining and people started to care. The Ravens eventually won the Super Bowl a couple times and are now hometown favorites. The Football Team and Ravens will have played each other in the preseason in Landover by the time you read this article. In recent years, I would have bet there would be more Ravens fans in attendance. But Washington’s modest success last season could be a boon for attendance. It will be a telling moment as the loyalties in our area are revealed during that game.
The Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers maintain one of the most compelling rivalries in the NFL today, as each team annually competes for division supremacy. (Creative Commons License).
Visiting teams seem to attract their hometown fans to attend games when they play in our region. There, many people from all corners of the USA who are based in the Washington, D.C. area and will support their home teams when they play here. This might take away a little of the home town advantage. When Lebron James plays the Wizards it seems he gets more cheers than the home team. Superstars have a way of attracting fans.
Geography often plays a role in fan interest. The famous rivalry between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox has been particularly intense. There is a distinct border in Eastern Connecticut that separates Yankee fans from Red Sox fans. Here in our area, the gray area between stadiums is probably too great to define fan interest by geography. Therefore, I believe, it is the culture of the team, the team’s identity, or perhaps the “cool factor” of attending at a particular stadium that earns a fan’s loyalty. The steadfast support that the Maryland Terrapin’s basketball team receives is surely one of the keys to their dominance at the Xfinity Center. A couple season’s ago, the Terps frequently fell behind early in their games only to come charging back. The fans never quit cheering the team on and the Terps responded. It was an exciting season that could have resulted in a deep NCAA Tournament run. Unfortunately, we will never know how it would have turned out due to the canceled season caused by the Coronavirus. (In my dreams I think the Terps won it all). This past season was equally exciting, if only until the end, when a promising late-season run was lost in the second round of the tournament. There’s always next season.
The Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees draw full crowds of loyal fans for both teams to Camden Yards in Baltimore each summer. (Creative Commons License).
One of the most watched football games every year is Army vs. Navy. No matter successful one team has been all season you can count on the game being exciting. This is one of the greatest of American sporting events. Presidents will sit on one side for a half and the other side for the second half. Every player is headed for military service and the viewers appreciate their dedication to America. It feels like the final score doesn’t really matter after such a thrilling spectacle.
Sports teams and their managers work hard to project a positive image with inspiring uniforms, unique team colors, slick logos, fun mascots, fan club rallies, half time shows, a clean experience at stadiums, food and drinks, and most importantly, a good time. Team clothing sales are big business. Fans love showing their support by wearing the team’s gear. Based on my very unofficial survey, the percentage of fans wearing Washington Capitals team jerseys tops every other team in the area. Getting tickets to games has become a lot easier thanks to internet services that help ticket holders sell to people without season tickets. The whole system in sports works well when fans are engaged. Sponsors recognize these trends and eagerly sign on when there is overwhelming fan support.
Despite a name change from the Washington Redskins to Washington Football Team, the franchise retains loyal fans who recall the “glory days” of the late-1970s through early-’90s when the team reached five championships during the Super Bowl era, winning three. (Photo by Keith Allison)
There are times when a team’s fan base actually follows an individual player as much as a team. Names that come to mind in our area include: Cal Ripken, Jr., Alex Ovechkin, Darrell Green, Ray Lewis, Earl Monroe, Johnny Unitas, Roger Staubach, Patrick Ewing, and Juan Dixon. Recently, ESPN broadcast a 10-part series on Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. The series sparked considerable debate about who is the greatest professional basketball player of all time. Was it Michael Jordan or Lebron James, or even Bill Russell? Since they never actually played against each other we will never know for sure, but it does generate a lot of debate. It’s one of the reasons so many sporting fans study statistics of the games. Some of the passionate and endless arguments in sports is usually regarding a player’s or team’s greatness. The routine is just part of the intrigue and surely the reason sports talk on the radio attracts so many listeners.
Often, I tune into a game, for which I have no allegiance with either team, just to watch the rivalry play out. Some games you just don’t want to miss include the Yankees vs. Red Sox, or the Green Bay Packers vs. the Chicago Bears, or, many moons ago, the brutal battles between Mohammad Ali and Joe Frazier. Closer to home there is always excitement around town when the Dallas Cowboys face Washington or when the Ravens take on the Pittsburgh Steelers…even when the Orioles host the dreaded Yankees. During the pandemic, I missed our sports rivalries. It was so sad to not have the Masters, NBA playoffs, hockey, Olympics, college sports, high school sports, or even any sailboat racing. Thank goodness we’ve begun our return to normal. And while we await the next great rivalry play out, what’s a sports fan to do? My suggestion is to get outdoors and do your own sport: hiking, golf, day-sailing, tennis, jogging, and fishing come to mind.
