The Griffon News

As I walked around the streets of downtown St. Louis with two of my friends, a voice suddenly sliced through the dark silence.

The voice belonged to a stout, dark figure that surfaced in the glow of a street light joyfully chanting, “The Cards won the World Series, the Cards won the World Series!”

This was only the beginning of the joy that spilled out onto the streets of the city. Following the unknown man’s announcement of victory, the sky filled with faint red, blue and white explosions of crackling fireworks. Although I have never been a Cardinals fan, that Friday night I belonged with the diehards.

The loud noise from the honking of passing cars charged the air with a sense of unity.

I found myself whooping and howling, while giving high fives and hugs to complete strangers. The atmosphere was a complete contradiction to me because everything seemed so chaotic, but at the same time a contained level of absolute “plur” (peace, love, unity and respect) existed within the crowds.

Through a journalism opportunity I ended up in St. Louis on the night the Cardinals won for a reason. I witnessed a wonderful display of athletic support throughout an entire community.

Memories of the Western, Northwest face-off flooded my thoughts. Northwest’s crowd seemed to be like the dedicated fans of St. Louis. The entire stadium was filled, and I know not all of them were relatives of the players. I want our campus to be like those fans; and not just our campus, but our whole community.

I was discussing this issue with one of my friends (a certain multimedia editor you all may know), and we decided that the city of St. Joseph is a city that happens to have a university somewhere inside of it.

On the other hand, Maryville is a university with a surrounding city. St. Louis has a baseball team and the city engulfs the team with pride.

Even Platte City is considered Pirate Country because of high school ball. It’s sad to say, but our town is different and in many ways, and our sports are hindered by that fact. I know the idea of fan support sounds a bit redundant, but I am addressing a much larger crowd. I also know a much larger crowd sounds funny because this is a school paper, but maybe students or faculty will read this, pass the word on and spread the Western spirit.

The city of St. Joseph needs to bare their Griffon pride, and I don’t know: fly a Western flag, put the Western emblem in a window or sell Western paraphernalia in one or two of the numerous businesses in this city.

St. Joseph doesn’t have a major league football team or baseball team, but we do have Western.

We have an amazing football team this semester that does the best they can at keeping the audience on the edge of their seats. Take pride in this school, in this sport and in our community as a whole.

I challenge everyone who has made it through this entire speech to spread the word to three non-campus members.

Tell them that with their support we may have our own night of celebration, where our community can unite and stand together. So with that said, I’ll be seeing you (all of you) on Nov. 4, at 2:00 p.m., in order to face-off against Fort Hayes State (1-6,1-8 MIAA) on our own home turf.