I have to admit that I am fairly new to the rivalry that is Ohio and Miami, but my hatred for the RedHawks is anything but.
Growing up just 45 minutes away from the Oxford campus, I had heard about how great of a university it was and how pretty the campus was. Heck, Robert Frost once declared Miami the most beautiful campus there ever was.
I'm not real sure how many colleges Mr. Frost visited, or if he was like all the other sports fans in America and was talking about Miami, Fla., but, as far as I can tell, Miami is the most overrated campus there ever was.
My first time on campus was for a basketball game at Millet Hall. Miami's campus was nice but it was in no way one of the prettiest campuses that I had seen, let alone the best ever made. In my eyes it is second rate compared to Athens.
I had heard that Miami fans were crazy and that they were diehards, but upon entering the building I felt like I was in more of a morgue than a basketball arena.
The few students that bothered to take a break from shopping with their parent's credit cards were all but crazy. When I saw Charlie Coles for the first time I figured someone's grandpa had accidentally wandered his way on to the court. Even the hotdogs didn't taste right.
After the game my dad and I drove through town, and the majority of students looked like they had come straight out of an Abercrombie catalog. Everyone was walking around town with popped collars, spiked hair and khaki pants, but what else would you expect from a school that is known in the Greek world for starting three fraternities?
It was then that I knew Miami would never be the school for me.
My hatred only grew when the Pittsburgh Steelers drafted Miami quarterback Ben
Roethlisberger. If there is a more overrated, overvalued quarterback in the NFL, I would love to see him. Only a Miami alum would ride around on a motorcycle without a helmet with a multi-million dollar contract on the line.
Once I actually got to Athens I found yet another reason to hate people from Miami.
Every Halloween, students flock from Oxford to Athens to partake in our annual Halloween festivities and every year a couple of those Miami students get out of hand and get arrested (two were arrested this year.) It is partially the fault of these students that Athens City Council threatened to put up a fence on Court St.
I have a better idea. Lets put a wall up around Oxford so Miami students can't get out.
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Matt O'Donnell
