(PUBLISHER’S NOTE: This OPEN LETTER was released last summer in hopes it would instigate thought for the future, but based on current conversations, the correspondence failed to achieve much of anything other than public debate. So, with similar hopes that something can be salvaged for the 2023-24 athletic seasons, we’ve decided to re-publish it now – with necessary changes – to provoke consideration during the Fourth of July weekend.)
Mr. Staskey, Mr. Depew, Mr. Dougherty:
When we were kids, we played sandlot football during the month of August. Not baseball but football, and one team wore Maroon, the other red or white or blue, and usually those pick-up games were between the public-school students and the Catholic kids. It was for bragging rights at our playgrounds, ya know, and it was we grade school kids dreaming of playing in the big game.
The same game that sold out a standing-room-only Wheeling Island Stadium every last-Friday in August. The game that caused schools to be littered with toilet paper. The game that split mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters. The game that ended summer each August.
Park vs. Central.
That game went away for a lot of logical reasons, but also for a few political ones.
Central vs. Linsly?
Once the final regular-season game each season, the annual matchup was moved to the middle of the schedule. About five years ago, though, that gridiron rivalry was erased, too.
Gentlemen, we want our rivalries to return, and we want everything that comes with them, too. We want the media coverage, the bonfires, pep rallies, tailgate parties in jam-packed parking lots, and standing-room-only crowds. Yes, gentlemen, we want back the hoopla, the debates, the jersey wars, and the friendly wagers that used to surround these annual clashes.
We understand the reasons why many felt playing the games was too costly with the postseason point systems in mind, but time also has proven one game would not keep a very talented team out of the postseason. If it’s the foolish politics stopping the planning process, pledge the proceeds to a different non-profit each year and use that contribution commitment as the excuse to swallow some stubborn pride.
Let them play football again, sirs, and for that matter, all of the other sports, too. There are a few inter-city duels on volleyball and golf schedules this Fall, but why not boys and girls basketball in the winter, and baseball and softball in the spring?
Let’s get back to having some of that fun because, after all, that’s what rivalries are supposed to be. Let’s allow friends to compete against friends. Let’s do something good for our community.
Sincerely,
Wheeling’s 50-Plus People
