Dec. 9, 2010

DC vs. Philadelphia, The Natural Rivalry

One of the most important recent developments for Georgetown athletics came a few weeks ago when it was announced that we would add TCU as a conference foe starting in the 2012-2013 season. Much of the national commentary on the move has harped on the fact even for a conference spread across two time zones, a Texas school would be a stretch for any organization with the word "East" in their name. Some that defended the move replied that, heck, if the Dallas Cowboys could thrive as a member of the NFC East its not too crazy that the Frogs could develop what make sports fun: rivalries.

As much of my previous work for this blog has been based on thoughts about rivalries, in antic ipation for Thursday night's matchup with the Temple Owls I thought I'd dump a few more musings on the topic. In my mind there are two distinct categories of rivalries. The first type are the rivalries that don't make much objective sense to an uninformed observer. A stranger to American sports would not readily understand why a NFL team in Dallas would count teams in DC, Philadelphia and New York as its principle rivals (or for that manner, why a school in DC would consider a school in upstate New York as its principle rival). Instead, these kinds of rivalries are based on some combination of major historical events (the closing of Manley Field House comes to mind) or other elements from sport that causes the matchup to be highly anticipated.

On the other side there are the rivalries that need no explanation. Often they arise from issues that transcend sports like close geographic competition. For Washington DC, I'd argue that the natural rival for our nation's capital is the City of Brotherly Love. The cities are within easy driving distance of each other (a fact that I will be enjoying as I drive up to the game tomorrow) and have plenty of shared history between the two.

Therefore when it comes to sports, as a team that calls DC "Our Playground," we should look forward to the Temple game not only as a compelling matchup of two good teams but also as part of our continuing rivalry with Philadelphia. As someone who isn't a big fan of other DC sports (and who knows lots of Hoyas with Eagles/Phillies loyalties) I like to have this window of opportunity to enjoy this geographic grudge match.

- Kasper Statz (COL '10)