FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Mugsy]

I say this from personal experience as a Parker. From the first day one sets foot on the North Park campus as a student, it's drummed into that freshman's head that Wheaton is the archenemy. (Three years ago, I happened to be on the NPU campus during the first day of New Student Orientation, and I saw that someone had put a sign on the footbridge across the Chicago River in the middle of campus that read, "THANK YOU FOR NOT CHOOSING WHEATON!") There are all sorts of reasons for this fervent sense of rivalry on the part of Parkers, from the common evangelical affinities of the two schools to their differing social philosophies to the fact that there's a lot of cross-pollination within families and churches as far as Wheaton and NPU are concerned, to a certain amount of "little brother syndrome" on the part of those who support the less-well-known and less-endowed school (NPU). No matter what the sport, the penultimate game or games in any Vikings athlete's season is always Wheaton. It was even that way in men's basketball back in the seventies and eighties when the Vikings were winning national titles and Wheaton was mediocre at best. As much as the Vikings got up to play the conference's other powerhouses, Augustana and Illinois Wesleyan (and later North Central), it was always Wheaton that energized the Vikings fans the most and brought out the best in the players. Wheaton is, was, and probably always will be the school that makes NPU see red.

Do Wheaties care? No. Most of them are barely even aware of NPU's existence, and of the Wheaties that do follow their school's sports (and are thus at least semi-familiar with the other seven schools of the CCIW), North Park doesn't seem to elicit any particular excitement. That's because Parkers focus upon Wheaton for the non-athletics reasons I stated above ... but Wheaties don't share those antagonisms, so the only thing that could motivate them into reciprocating the animosity that would make it a true two-way rivalry would be the actual athletic competition itself. And, unfortunately, NPU just hasn't been competitive very often in any sport over the past decade and a half. So there's no reason for the Wheaties to get worked up over the Park.

That might be changing now. NPU is still struggling in a lot of sports -- football being an obvious example, since not having a winning season since 1968 and not winning a CCIW game since 2000 is about as compelling evidence of a program's pathology as anything could possibly be -- but the Vikings are becoming dominant in the sport that seems to capture the attention of Wheaties more than any other: Men's soccer. If NPU can continue to smack around Wheaton on the soccer pitch, it might spark the Wheaties into finally reciprocating NPU's antagonism, which would thus foster a true rivalry for the first time since Wheaton re-entered the CCIW in the late sixties.

There's also different levels of rivalry. What athletes consider to be a rival isn't necessarily shared by the rest of the student body. I know that Carthage and Elmhurst athletes in at least two sports (football and men's basketball) have considered the other school to be a rival at least at one time or another over the past decade, but are those sentiments shared by the rest of their two respective student bodies?

Awesome post, Mr. Sager.  

Being a Wheaton grad, former Crusader football player and coach, life-long "Covenanter", and husband to a North Park grad, your post rings true from my perspective.  From an athletic standpoint Wheaton did not and does not view North Park as a rival at all, primarily as you pointed out because of the competitiveness.  Like you say that may be changing somewhat in the area of soccer.

For me the highest level of rivalry between North Park and Wheaton, bar none, is in the Glen Ellyn Covenant Church.  For those who don't know, Glen Ellyn is the suburb just east of Wheaton.  The congregation has a large representation of both North Park and Wheaton grads due to the affiliation with the Covenant and the close proximity to Wheaton.  I took some serious grief from some due to my decision to attend Wheaton and play football instead of North Park.  Some serious (good natured) ribbin' goes on every year...

[Mugsy]

Mugsy,

Just noticed your #800 post and a move up to All Conference!

Nice work.

Whoa... I didn't even realize there was a bump at post #800.  Cool.

[redman04]

I know that in football when I played (2001-2004), we rivaled IWU because their coach at the time (I dont know if he is still there) would say terrible things about our program. He would say that we have terrible facilities (which is crazy we have one of if not the best) and that our coaches do not know how to coach and a recruit is wasting his time if he comes to Carthage. So every year we would try and get an extra little pop on someone at the end of a play, when we played IWU (legal of course  ) I dont know if that stands anymore with the Redmen but I would say the team we wanted to beat the most was IWU.

I think that the games against IWU were always great.  There was always a great deal of hitting and the games were always interesting.  We hated old norm then too and I still hate him!  I also think that Elmhurst is a good Rivalry with Carthage.  However ( No disrespect to Elmhurst, Jaybird) How much of a rivalry is it when Carthage has won 9 of the last 11.  For Carthage, I think that everyone hates them equally.

[Mugsy]

Speaking of posters who could stir things up... anyone remember "redbus" and his short-lived time on the CCIW board?

Short lived is right.  I think it only took him a couple of days to get banned.

Ranting on and on with inane points and then cussing out everyone (including the creator of D3Football) usually limits ones invitation here.

[matblake]

Any thoughts from the Millikin crowd on this weekend's game at Wabash?  Some of the luster is off this one given last weekend's results, but it should still be a very good college football game. 

I think that this one will be a tight game.  I hate to pick against the CCIW, but I do think that Wabash will come out on top.  However, I am not very confident as Wallick can be an amazing back.  If he has a breakout day, watch out.  There have been some consistency issues with him, but that may have more to do with the offense than him personally.  According to the OAC board, the ONU v Millikin tilt seemed as if a few miscues by ONU kept this from being a larger  point differential.  However, over here it was attributed to tough D.

[CardinalAlum]

Mugsy,

Just noticed your #800 post and a move up to All Conference!

Nice work.

Whoa... I didn't even realize there was a bump at post #800.  Cool.

Does that make you better than me? 

[Comet 14]

I think that the games against IWU were always great.  There was always a great deal of hitting and the games were always interesting.  We hated old norm then too and I still hate him!  I also think that Elmhurst is a good Rivalry with Carthage.  However ( No disrespect to Elmhurst, Jaybird) How much of a rivalry is it when Carthage has won 9 of the last 11.  For Carthage, I think that everyone hates them equally.                                                                                                                                           You can't just choose an 11 year period to determine if there is a rivalry. I would be interested to see what the overall head to head record is for this match-up.

[Mugsy]

Ranting on and on with inane points and then cussing out everyone (including the creator of D3Football) usually limits ones invitation here.

I know, I know... some would say the only difference from my posts is that I haven't cussed anyone out.

[Mugsy]

Whoa... I didn't even realize there was a bump at post #800.  Cool.

Does that make you better than me? 

Of course.  Notice that I have one more star below my name than you.  That makes me better.

[CardinalAlum]

I think that the games against IWU were always great.  There was always a great deal of hitting and the games were always interesting.  We hated old norm then too and I still hate him!  I also think that Elmhurst is a good Rivalry with Carthage.  However ( No disrespect to Elmhurst, Jaybird) How much of a rivalry is it when Carthage has won 9 of the last 11.  For Carthage, I think that everyone hates them equally.                                                                                                                                           You can't just choose an 11 year period to determine if there is a rivalry. I would be interested to see what the overall head to head record is for this match-up.

I must have missed this, but Comet, where did you play?

[SLJH]

Whoever you are"Cardinal Alumni" and I don't care.  Keep my name out of your mouth...... This is Sheldon Harris.

[Mugsy]

Whoever you are"Cardinal Alumni" and I don't care.  Keep my name out of your mouth...... This is Sheldon Harris.

Ah... the Elmhurst coaching staff returns to posting on this board.  Here we go again.

Unless of course someone just created a hotmail account to impersonate Coach Harris...

[79jaybird]

Carthage/Elmhurst series:  Carthage leads 34-19-1
My personal great rivalries
football  Cortland St./Ithaca   battle for Cortaca Jug
Purdue/Indiana    Oaken Bucket
Wabash/DePauw
Cornell/Coe  as somebody earlier mentioned, oldest rivalry W of Mississippi
basketball
Hope/Calvin which had the largest crowd for a D-3 basketball game

I think rivalries are what your HEART says, and how you "gear up" for the big game.  I know when I played, we always got the adrenaline going a little faster for the Carthage game.  Today's Bluejays, might act a little different.. .who knows?

[CardinalAlum]

Whoever you are"Cardinal Alumni" and I don't care.  Keep my name out of your mouth...... This is Sheldon Harris.

Oh, I see, changing your name and e-mail address makes a huge difference!    Don't worry I won't tell!

Sheldon Harris, Sheldon Harris, Sheldon Harris 

[Pat Coleman]

Mr. Harris:

Stop it. You're embarrassing yourself and Elmhurst. Your original posts came from the address that is attributed to you ON YOUR SCHOOL'S WEB SITE.

Please stop. You aren't winning this argument. The evidence doesn't lie. You can't get a password without having access to the e-mail address you registered with, and that's your day job's address.