Guest Post: A House Divided

First of all, I would like to preface this story by thanking Rob & Todd for giving me this opportunity to tell, what I believe, is a unique story about the game against Lehigh this past weekend. Also, I am a freshman at this fine institution of higher education, so I may not have the writing skills of a New York Times columnist, sorry. I also won’t state names, so sorry if it’s hard to follow sometimes.

I have six uncles, plus my Dad, many of which have played football at one point or another, but only two have made it past the highschool level. One of my uncles went on to become a offensive tackle for the hometown Engineers of Lehigh University (as they were known then). The other became a defensive end for the Dukes of James Madison (he later went on to become the team leader in sacks for the 1989 season). They never met on the field. So, when JMU and Lehigh announced a home-and-home series for the 2014 and 2015 seasons, we knew we had to get together and watch their teams play each other.

We had a mini family reunion at the game, but sadly, my uncle from JMU couldn’t make it. In the parking lot, we tailgated with another family that had somewhat of a similar predicament as we did; they went to Lehigh, but their daughter went to JMU.

Later on, at the begging of the second half, when the lightning delay was announced, I jokingly told my dad that this is the momentum shifter that the Dukes needed, similar to the power outage at the Super Bowl a few years back. My uncle from Lehigh overheard, and was reminded a game from back in the day: Lehigh vs. Villanova. Lehigh manhandled Villanova in the first half, but after a lightning delay, Villanova shut down Lehigh to win the game. He had to leave after the delay to do alumni things, but he basically told me not to get my hopes up before he left.

I still don’t know his reaction when he found out JMU came back, down eleven to one of the best teams in I-AA football, to win the game. After the game, I sent a picture of the scoreboard to my uncle from JMU. His response: “Woooooooooo!”Hopefully they can both make it, as well as all of you, to round two in Bridgeforth next year.