Sewing Machine

Before their annual “meeting” this year with the Auburn University football team, the University of Alabama football team was an overwhelming favorite to win the 2013 American college football championship.  Auburn did the unthinkable, going in one year from a hapless, and even embarrassing, season to being a legitimate national championship caliber team.  At least partly because of their defeat of Alabama, the Auburn University team will be competing in the national championship game against the team from the Florida State University.  This post is not about that.

On the national television broadcast of the Alabama – Auburn football game there was what to many was a very humorous moment.  An Auburn player, Ladarius Owens, had a tear in his uniform.   Rather than having Owens put on another jersey (shirt), the team brought out a portable sewing machine to repair the one he was wearing.

Many people laughed at this.  I would say that, rather than being silly, this showed an extreme attention to detail.  The team was prepared for any eventuality, even a torn shirt.  Are those of us in the Church, prepared for anything which might happen?  Are we prepared for a power outage?  Are we prepared for the abrupt resignation of our pastor?  Are we prepared for the sudden illness of a church member during a church service?  Are we prepared to respond to a natural disaster?  Are we prepared for an armed intruder in our church?

Roll Tide! War Eagle!

I have spoken before about how football is almost a religion in Alabama.  People are born into Alabama or Auburn families and sons of players at one school almost invariably play at the same school.  Most approach this in a rational fashion and take good natured pokes at one another.  As with anything, a few become obsessive to absurd levels.

Today is the first game day of the 2012 season.  Auburn is playing the Clemson Tigers in Atlanta, Georgia and the currently second-ranked Alabama is visiting the Michigan Wolverines in Dallas, Texas. 

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Roll tide

War Eagle flight

The origin of Crimson Tide and Roll Tide:

The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California is where the Alabama team won their first four national titles (a total of fourteen.)  The national sports writers spoke of the team looking like a tide of red, a Crimson Tide, pouring onto the field.

The association with an elephant (the mascot: Big Al) began because the sports writers noticed a picture of a red elephant on the personal storage trunks the players brought with them.  The trunks were supplied to the team by a local Birmingham luggage company, Rosenberger's Birmingham Trunk, whose business logo is a red elephant.  The elephant logo refers to the strength of the trunks which they sell.

The origin of War Eagle:

The Auburn Tigers mascot is Aubie the Tiger.  The eagle, also, became associated with the team very early in Auburn history. In 1892, an eagle circled over the football field during a football game and the fans pointed into the air and yelled “War Eagle!”  

Biblical Sources of Phrases in Common Use: A House Divided

In Alabama, we take our football very seriously.  An Auburn fan who marries an Alabama fan usually will remain an Auburn fan, and vice versa.  Most people make the most of the situation and express their school loyalties with good humor toward one another .  Of course, there are always a few who do not.

Other similar university rivalries include: Ohio State and Ohio, Louisville and Kentucky,  Michigan and Michigan State,  Purdue and Indiana, Idaho and Boise State, and many others.

“A house divided” is sometimes also used for familial differences in political philosophy or religion.  A  famous use of the phrase was during the American Civil War in United States President Abraham Lincoln’s House Divided Speech.

The origin of the phrase is in Matthew 12:25, where Jesus says, “... Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand:”

  

God Didn't Approve

We in the American South are often accused of making college football into a religion.  We laugh about it but know there is at least a hint of truth to the charge.  It was on display at the Southeastern Conference  (SEC) Media Days recently (Friday, 22 July 2011) at the Wynfrey Hotel in Hoover, Alaabama.

Each year the SEC football coaches, their staffs, some of their players, and innumerable newspaper, magazine, radio, television, and internet reporters gather to discuss the upcoming football season.  They talk about team strengths and weaknesses, up and coming players, and anything football related.

An Alabama fan, Eric Blackerby, of Columbiana, Alabama, was spotted wearing a tee-shirt with the logo "I HATE AUBURN ."  Asked about the shirt, NIck Saban , the coach of the University of Alabama football team responded, "I would tell him it's not personal, that it really isn't personal.  That is not really the way that we should respect the opponents that we have."

Asked later about Saban's comment, Blackerby responded, "It's like I went to church and God told me that he didn't approve."

Roll Tide in Jerusalem

Here in Birmingham we are often accused of making Alabama and Auburn football into a religion.  It's probably true. We love our football.  You rarely go a day without seeing someone wearing a sweatshirt from one of the two teams (and from other Southeastern Conference schools and numerous other less well known smaller colleges and universities). You'll often see a car with Alabama or Auburn insignia on the side panels or with school flags flapping in the wind.  My favorite is a tiger tail hanging out of a car trunk, as if someone has abducted Aubie, the mascot of Auburn University.

Ashley Makar is a divinity student at Yale University and a Birmingham native.  She is of Egyptian ancestry.  Her father is a cardiologist in Birmingham.  Recently, in Jerusalem, she ran upon a startling sight, the Alabama the Heart of Dixie souvenir shop.  Of course, she had to check this out.

The owner of the shop is Hani Imam, who lived in Tuscaloosa, Alabama from 1984 to 1994.  At the shop he has Alabama items and decorations but sells Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Holy Land items to religious tourists.  Imam watches Alabama football games on his satellite television and is hoping for them to repeat as national champions.

As Makar left the shop, the Muslim manager, Dia Abdeen, smiled and said, "Roll Tide!"

Makar, Ashley, "Viewpoints: There's a Heart of Dixie and a Roll Tide in Jerusalem," al.com.  http://blog.al.com/birmingham-news-commentary/2010/09/viewpoints_theres_a_heart_of_d.html