Northwestern fans go distance
miamiherald.com
CHARLES TRAINOR JR. / MIAMI HERALD STAFF
Northwestern fans in the stands at Ford Stadium hold up a sign while watching the Bulls play against Southlake Carroll on Saturday, Sept. 15, 2007.
Posted on Sun, Sep. 16, 2007Digg del.icio.us AIM reprint print email
By LINDA ROBERTSON
lrobertson@MiamiHerald.com
DALLAS -- Johnnie Taber sat on a bus for 24 hours to get from Miami to Dallas. She took time off from her job as a bartender at the Arabia Lounge. She spent Saturday in a hot, noisy stadium surrounded by fans cheering against her team.
But it was worth it. Oh, yes, it was worth every minute, every penny, every taunt. Taber, a member of Miami Northwestern High's inaugural graduating class in 1956, didn't miss football games half a century ago, and she hasn't since. Once a Bull, always a Bull.
So when the players suited up for the historic No. 1 vs. No. 2, Texas vs. Florida clash of high school powerhouses, Taber put on her uniform, too: Blue-and-gold pantsuit, blue-and-gold earrings, blue-and-gold corsage and leopard-print cowboy hat.
Her loyalty was repaid 1,000 times over as Northwestern sprinted past Southlake Carroll's previously unstoppable Green Machine, 29-21, in an insane game that left the home team and the state of Texas deflated.
The Bulls return from their road trip today as the pride of Florida, Miami and Liberty City. Northwestern is the undisputed No. 1 high school team in the nation.
NO. 1 IN COUNTRY
''My school, best in the country,'' Taber, 67, said. ``I've believed that since I was 16 years old.''
Boiled down to its essence, the game was about pride. Passion for your neighborhood. Devotion to your roots. Home sweet home.
High school games cause goose bumps. Ragged beauty and raw emotion burst from kids playing for something purer than money or fame. They're playing for pride. Pride of place, pride in each other. A more mushy word for it would be love.
''We love our neighborhood and we love these boys and how they are representing our neighborhood,'' Taber said. ``We grew up in what they call the ghetto. But it's really not. To us, it's just home.''
Saturday's showdown between state champions was portrayed as Black vs. White, Poor vs. Rich, the Have-Nots vs. the Hummer Drivers. Even a Northwestern fan held up a sign that read ''Free Lunch Section.'' ESPNU could not have paired two more disparate communities. Southlake Carroll is a wealthy Sun Belt town of McMansions with a median household income of $185,000 that invests millions in its football team. Northwestern is an all-black team, situated in the inner city, where the median household income is $23,377 and the Scott housing project is nicknamed Pork and Beans.
But after a wild game of long passes and maddening mistakes, the teenagers from both teams knelt at midfield in a giant huddle and gave thanks.
''It's not a racial thing because you can see these kids don't dislike each other,'' Taber said.
``It's all about competition.''
Southlake Carroll, envied and resented in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, mocked as a ''Stepford Wives'' town, hates being stereotyped just as much as Northwestern.
''Our kids work extremely hard,'' said Robin Blackburn, whose two sons played for the Dragons and came home from college Saturday to attend the game. ``Money doesn't make a great team.''
The Bulls can vouch for that. Many of the Northwestern players had never been on an airplane or left Florida. The marching band had to raise $21,000 to make the trip. Parents and alumni had to dig deep to travel to Dallas. But there was never any question that the Bulls and about 4,000 of their supporters would come.
The football team and the band have always been rallying points in the community -- heirlooms passed down from generation to generation.
`A BIG FAMILY'
''Growing up in the projects, we were poor and didn't know it,'' said Cleveland Morley Jr., class of 1968 and vice chairman of the alumni association.
``We shared. We were like a big family. Northwestern's tradition goes way back. It's hard to explain, but school spirit is something that burns in us.''
Saturday's game was confirmation of how powerful that spirit is. The two sections of Northwestern fans in Southern Methodist University's stadium were outnumbered 8 to 1 among 31,896 spectators. But they were not outyelled.
On quarterback Jacory Harris' three touchdown connections with Tommy Streeter, they leapt to their feet and screamed. On the Bulls' three fumbles, they groaned.
They could see that the Bulls were better.
Northwestern football has always been an oasis of joy in Liberty City. Taber and Morley's fondest memories are eating seafood at Bahama Troy's, roller skating on 65th Street, listening to James Brown and Betty Wright and going to Bulls games. A sexual battery scandal involving a star player and the dismissal of coaches and administrators who allegedly protected him tarnished the program last season. But this team has restored the prestige. It has revived the pride.
''These kids are well aware of Northwestern's history because we don't let them forget it,'' Morley said.
Now they've made history of their own. |
