Yes I know it's been a while since you have seen one of these from me. Of course I haven't forgotten. And it's not even like there hasn't been plenty of things going on to warrant an entry in this weekly category. I've just been too busy to invest a little time to speak on any of it. Well I finally got to a day where I don't have anything of substance going on so you get to be blessed with a long-awaited opinionated entry. In fact, there were two subjects I wanted to address that are worthy of Bungles recognition.
The first was the news about the fight heard around the world. Literally. It involved an international exhibition game in China between the Georgetown Hoyas and the Chinese professional team the Bayi Rockets. Many of us here would have ever known about the game were it not for the fact that the two teams started brawling in the second half. And I mean BRAWLING. Check out the video and you can see that they put that Melee at the Palace to shame with the fight.
When I initially heard about this incident I immediately assumed the worst. My generation clearly remembers the days of the Georgetown Hoyas from the 80s when they were scrappin' ALL the time. I just automatically assumed that this new Hoya bunch has reverted back to the ways of their alumni predecessors. So I was all set to give them the Bungles award for bringing those days back. But when you read into the story a little more there's more to it.
It seems the game was rough from the beginning. The refs had been calling very lopsided with Georgetown having twice as many fouls than the Chinese time by halftime. The fight itself started after a Hoya player was fouled extremely hard and pushed the Chinese player off him. That's when the Chinese team started throwing bows. Reports from the scene indicate that the Chinese cats had a chip on their shoulder from the very beginning for some reason. Therefore, the Bungles award goes out to the Chinese team for trying to instigate things. I should have known John Thompson, Jr. wasn't having that mess.
The other one worth mentioning isn't near as violent, but still rather off-putting depending on who you ask. It has to do with the in-state rivalry that we've had between Iowa and Iowa State for years and years. You don't hear about it so much during basketball season, but it gets very heated during this time of year when football season has started. As with any college football rivalry, the Cyclones and Hawks play for a trophy every year: The Cy-Hawk Trophy. Well starting this year...it looks a little bit different.
I've read the story a couple of times and I still cannot find why they decided to change the look of the trophy. What they do provide is a very detailed explanation as to what the new look represents. I get where they were going with the whole trying to embody the characteristics of Iowans in the trophy and all, but that doesn't change the fact that it looks stupid. If this was a trophy that two rival farming organizations were fighting for then that'd be different. It's not. It's football.
Now I will concede that the original trophy did look dated. In fact, it looked a little unoriginal as it favored the Heisman with its pose a bit. However, if they were going to update it they could have went with something that embodied he characteristics of each school rather than the entire state. How about a mini-bust of Cy and Herky going at it? I dont't think it would have been asking too much to have it look more football-related look though. Whoever voted on the new design clearly got it wrong. Almost makes me glad that we don't have to worry about it spending much time in Ames.
