Garden City-Manhasset in lacrosse, Duke-UNC in basketball, Yankees-Red Sox in baseball. These are all classic examples of rivalries in sports.
One of the best aspects of playing sports at the High School, College or Professional levels…rivalry games. These games give players an emotional high. It gives teams bragging rights for months or year to come. It gives sports organizations a prominent place in history.
It’s interesting to think where rivalries come from, how they form, and how they stick.
- When you think of Duke-UNC, you have two colleges in close proximity. 1 school traditionally fun, cool, and flashy. The other smart, focused, and unassuming. Schools vastly differ, basketball programs both looking to achieve competitive greatness.
- When you look at Yankees-Red Sox, you have two professional sports teams in the same conference. 1 organization located in a city that thinks its better than any other. The other organization located in a city representing the under-dog and blue collar man.
- In lacrosse, Manhasset-Garden City brings together two teams from similar towns separated by a 10 to 15 miles stretch. Both with families who have a rich lacrosse history and choose to invest a significant amount of time and money towards developing their kids in the sport.
As rivalries form for different reasons, the fans always play a huge role in keeping them alive. From synchronized chants to orchestrated hand movements, fans look to distract the opponent and influence the game for the betterment of their team.
Tonight, tune into ESPN tonight and watch the end of one the greatest living rivalries in sports.
