Events And Places

There are times in life that an event occurs that the magnitude of that event is astounding.  I can remember growing up in the fall of 1964 Lady Bird Johnson then the First Lady of the United States hopped on a train in Norfolk and made whistle stops in Ahoskie, and I think she even stopped or maybe the ride ended in Rocky Mount.

Regardless of your political views the First Lady coming to your town is event to remember.  I had an uncle who owned a furniture store on main street right beside the railroad track and upstairs where he had all his extra furniture there were windows that we could hang out as the train stopped on main street.  Having the secret service come and frisk you and check you out in order to be there was an event in itself.

I remember the first time I got off the subway in New York City and staring at the name New York Yankees across the front of Yankee Stadium having chill bumps from all the baseball history that I was about to stand on.

There are those special moments from getting to call state championship games knowing how important it was to the teams involved and the memories that would be created from what ever that was about to happen.

Saturday right here in Rocky Mount was another one of those special days.  In all of college sports there may never be a team as dominant in it's level as the team that came to our town Mount Union.  Their winning streaks, National Titles  there is no other school in any division that is any bigger then Mount Union.  Alabama, Notre Dame all have traditions for winning football programs but none compare to Mount Union's record. Yes they have more money  and scholarships to provide their players but nobody compares to Mount Union.  Recent history Mount Union has won 158 games and lost 7.

They have not lost a regular season football game since October 22nd 2005.  After  the win over the Bishops they have won 104 straight regular season games.  Astounding is the fact that their victory over the Battling Bishops was their 110th consecutive win on the road.  Twelve times they have won the division III playoffs and we all know just last season watching Rocky Mount win the state football title there are four DIII playoff games so winning just one is not easy.

This was the first time in the short history of Wesleyan football that they had ever played a number one team.  Oddly enough since the inception of football at NCW no other team has been number one at the end of the regular season other than Mount Union.

Like Rock stars two radio stations in Alliance Ohio cover the Purple Raiders and with WHIG's Wes Bradshaw and Edward Green doing internet coverage the pressbox at Bishop Stadium was full to capacity.  Everyone in the pressbox was guessing the attendance and the average guess was around 2600 which for a normal game this was a big crowd  but personally I was disappointed there were not more there.  There were about 500 Purple Raider fans in the house.

The good news is the greatest team in the history of Division Three football came to town and when they left the Battling Bishops were not embarrassed by the score.  They were soundly beaten but not run out of the stadium.  The Bishops got a taste of what winning football is all about.  There is no doubt Mount Union is the defending champions, number one D3 team in the country.  They showed us how to act as winners and just maybe some day North  Carolina Wesleyan will be the number one team.  They got a sampling of what it takes this past weekend.