In the broad scheme of things, the results of the Monon Bell Classic football game in Crawfordsville, Indiana, matter not much, unless you are a passionate graduate of Wabash College!

Yep, the Little Giants lost the biggest game of the year in a contest being described as the best version ever of the 129-year-old rivalry with DePauw University where BJ went to college.

Our children and now grandsons have heard of the passions of this game since they were born, and have tolerated our, (my?), bleatings about the contest every year.

This year we took the 15-year-old grandson to see the game on a beautiful fall Saturday afternoon in the Midwest. It was a sold-out game with all the accompanying tailgating celebrations for both schools before the game. The grandson was a little wide-eyed at the dress and activities on display.

We went to one of the tents in the Wabash tailgating area and were gifted with a bottle of tasty “Monon Bell” bourbon. A Wabash alumnus has a distillery in Saint Louis and distills a new recipe each year carrying the “Monon Bell” label. We may have to give up on the Jack Daniels!

At the end of regulation, the game was tied 27 all so it went into the first overtime ever. We were getting our money’s worth. There was no scoring, so the game went into the second overtime. There were no fans leaving. Wabash scores a field goal so they only have to hold DePauw on a fourth down play to win the game 30-27.

I must report that DePauw scored the game-winning points on a touchdown ending the game at 33-30. There was a collective “aw damn it” from the Wabash fans as the DePauw faithful ran onto the field. After 129 years the all-time record is 63 wins for Wabash, 57 wins for DePauw and 9 ties. (More senior football fans will remember that there were no overtimes many years ago.)

This was NCAA Division III sports of the highest order. There were passionate fans on both sides. There are stories of legendary pranks. You did not see some football player running unobstructed to the end zone and drop the ball before crossing the goal line as you probably saw a University of Washington player do last Saturday.

These players are students without athletic scholarships who are actually going to school without the financial benefits of the NIL payments. (Name, Image and Likeness compensation.)

We took the grandson to a program for approximately 25 prospective students at DePauw on Friday. They gave us some overview information and then we were assigned to a smaller group for a campus tour.

Our guide was a junior from Snohomish, Washington. He ended up at DePauw for the soccer program. I struck up a conversation with a co-ed in the bookstore who was a senior from Renton. She was looking forward to graduation and leaving the corn fields of Indiana for the cool mountains of the Great Pacific Northwest.

Thanks for reading this far. The fact is that this column is about life in Port Ludlow and this past week my Port Ludlow life was in the Midwest. I am certainly disappointed that the Little Giants lost the game. However, as Joyce Meyer is reported to have said, “You cannot have a positive life and a negative mind.”

Love a curmudgeon, be kind, be safe and Wabash Always Fights!

ned@ptleader.com