What is football for?

In a moment of repose,this morning, between taking phone calls and writing letters to various potentates, justices and other legal scalawags, I took the opportunity to look up the 2010 football schedule for Presbyterian College, that little institution of higher education on the piedmont hills of western South Carolina. My intent was to look for a game for which I might take my daughter Kate to see her alma mater perform their talents at the football field at New Bailey. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the first three schools lined up to play the Blue Hose in 2010were, in order: Wake Forest, Clemson and the Citadel. I was a little shocked. Just a few years ago, Presbyterian was pleased to exist in a league of small parochial schools situated in the Carolinas, Georgia and Tennessee. This seemed such a perfect collection of little schools, all founded by faithful groups of Christians who chose to start a college for the preservation of their particular theology.

But apparently there were a large number of trustees and alumni of this small Presbyterian school who desired to see their little school playing among the larger universities who weekly raise large masses of money in order to show off their school colors and ultimately send their "students" to go play games and earn large amounts of cash in the NFL. This is considered such an accomplishment in this country that most organizations of higher education turn their backs on the usual goals of their institutions, so that these alumni and trustees can stay at home on a Saturday afternoon, safe and airconditioned, with a cooler of beer and a tray of cocktails by their easy chair, and watch their alma mater hawk beer and insurance and potato chips to the masses. This, indeed,seems to be the highest calling of our modern institutions of higher educations.

What they don't see are the years of struggle, evolution and "growing pains" when the caliber of athlete doesn't quite match up with the requirements of the competition. I have some experience in this regard. I remember trying to be competitive with teams like Bucknell, Davidson and others. There were many times when my courage was failing and I managed a sheepish stab at trying to stop some behemoth who was protected and guarded by other like behemoths, all of which were quite speedier than myself. I had never suffered such losses in my earlier days.

I understand. I am behind the times, or lost in some other philosophy, far off the beaten path of the common sense of the masses. And I admit it. I too appreciate the efforts of my darling bulldogs, dressed in their red and black uniforms every Saturday afternoon, fighting for me and the rest of us proud alumni, and for whatever pile of money and sponsors they might glean for the betterment of the administration. Even today, I have a catalog on my coffee table, dedicated to the proposition that one cannot have enough items of clothing in red, black and white, any combination thereof, stripes, patterns, and style, all with the obligatory "G" located somewhere on each item.

I wonder what the original trustees of the colony of Georgia would have thought if they could have looked forward into the future of their tiny little colony back in the 17th century. That little colony created as a buttress between the Carolinas and Spanish Florida, to provide a place of shelter and industry for the denizens of the poorhouses and workhouses of England? I guess I am too cynical in my thoughts because I assume that they would probably be proud of the acccomplishments of the great-great-great-great grandsons and granddaughters of their wards.

The more things change, I'm afraid, the more they remain the same.