We’ve now entered the second half of the 2017 College Football Season. Time flies when you’re playing faux-football!
Game 1 – Southern Mississippi vs. Guilford
Guilford College is a liberal arts school of about 2,500 students located in Greensboro, North Carolina. The school was founded in 1837 by Quakers. Quakers believe that nonviolent confrontation and peaceful reconciliation are always superior to violent measures. This is why their football team is called the Fighting Quakers.
Guilford hosts the Bryan Series, an annual series of public lectures, which has drawn the likes of Ken Burns, Desmond Tutu, Colin Powell, and Yo-Yo Ma. They host the Eastern Music Festival, “North Carolina’s Musical Treasure” – a five-week-long gathering of student and professional musicians for performances and lectures.
Now that’s nonviolence. Nicely done, Quakers.
Game 2 – Brevard vs. BYU
Brevard College is a small Methodist school nestled in the Appalachia of North Carolina. Their teams are called the Tornadoes, which means they flatten the opponents leaving a trail of catastrophic destruction in their wake. A bit much, but I suppose intimidation is half the battle.
Brevard has an accomplished mountain biking team and even won the national championship in 2016. Actually, the team has won a few national titles. They are flattening the competition!
Game 3 – Michigan State vs. Colorado School of Mines
“Mines” is an engineering and applied science university located in Golden, Colorado. Ok, I’ll just get right to it. Mines was once ranked as the top engineering school in the nation. Read that again and tell me why we’ve (probably) never heard of Mines. Shame on us.
Their teams are the Orediggers. They’re even smart enough to have an apt mascot, instead of the all too prevalent forced one, like a Mine Tiger or Rock Lion. It’s mineral science all the way!
Game 4 – Gettysburg vs. Illinois
We think of Gettysburg and we think of the civil war battle or Lincoln’s famous address, right? However, we don’t think of their beautiful liberal arts school that predated the war and continues to this day.
Every year on Thanksgiving, the school hosts a Thanksgiving dinner extravaganza for all of their students, who arrive in groups and are treated to unlimited turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and more – and it’s all served by professors and administrators!
Lincoln would be proud – and serving dinner.
Let the games begin!
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