Coming soon, to a blog near you...

I am always very intrigued by tradition. The overwhelming satisfaction of why certain schools do certain motions and chants has always fascinated me. It had occurred to me that I had no idea why Auburn University said "War Eagle" before each game, and that the eagle swooped onto the field before the opening kickoff. At first, I thought it was another Mascot. Like the Tigers, were also the eagles, were also the plainsmen, I didn't get it. So Mr. Josh DeLung, my colleague and fellow VT blog writer went on our information source, Wikipedia to see what was the origin of this tale. After first glance, I thought it was a joke, but this is directly off the Auburn website...

"War Eagle" is Auburn's battle cry, not a mascot or nickname. The most popular story about the battle cry dates back to the first time Auburn met Georgia on the football field in 1892 and centers around a spectator who was a veteran of the Civil War. In the stands with him that day was an eagle the old soldier had found on a battlefield during the war. He had kept it as a pet for almost 30 years. According to witnesses, the eagle suddenly broke free and began majestically circling the playing field. As the eagle soared, Auburn began a steady march toward the Georgia end zone for a thrilling victory. Elated at their team's play and taking the bird's presence as an omen of success, Auburn students and fans began to yell "War Eagle" to spur on their team. At the game's end, the eagle took a sudden dive, crashed into the ground, and died. But the battle cry "War Eagle" lived on to become a symbol of the proud Auburn spirit.

So, the war eagle is not a nickname. Auburn usually states, "Alabama doesn't say Roll Elephant, it's the same concept". First of all, I would hope an Elephant wouldn't roll anywhere, that seems incredibly dangerous. Second of all, this description was way too "mock epic", blown way out proportion, and hilarious at the exact same time. This doesn't seem like an origin of a battle-cry, It seems like a Disney movie that never quite made it through storyboard. This description seems so ridiculously cheesy. I can imagine it would be one of those straight to Disney DVD. Therefore, "Life as a Hyperbole" will be doing the untold dramatic and heartwarming mini-series of, "Billy, The War Eagle". 

A wonderful journey set place in the civil war about an eagle named, Billy. Who flew throughout the plantations and the battlefields in the Plains of Alabama. This heartwarming tale about an eagles flight throughout the war, the injury and loss that he sustained, and his final epic flight over Jordan Hare Stadium. He's Billy... The War Eagle

Set forth for a journey in the sky!

Watch him soar through the clouds so high!

Soar Billy, The War Eagle!

Soar Billy, the War Eagle!

Hurry, Billy, the time is come!

You must help before it's too late,

Thanks to you, dear old Billy

Drunken Auburn fans can finally Celebrate!

For you old Billy...

Malibu's Most Wanted

I suppose once you go black... Well, you know the rest. Normally I do one post a day, but this was too great to keep to myself. Black and Whiteouts must be the new thing in high t-shirt sales these days. All over the country, teams are either going black or going white for football games. Virginia Tech went white for their opening game. Go ahead and do a google search. Do you see any white in those home uniforms? I told the Hokies, let Penn State do the white-outs. We should stick to the Orange and Maroon effect. So all that is fine and dandy right? Well, the new thing for college football this week, is the Blackout, and I gotta admit, the "Life as a Hyperbole" is feeling the black trend myself...

So here's the skinny, (yeah, i said skinny). I pay strong attention to 3 teams in college football: Virginia Tech, Alabama, and Appalachian State. 2 of these teams will be playing in a blackout game. Can you guess who?

No, It's not App. State!

Alabama and Virginia Tech are going on the road to host blackout games. Alabama goes to Athens to play Georgia and Virginia Tech to Lincoln to play Nebraska. Both Georgia and Nebraska are doing blackouts. Georgia realizes the impact of this game and decided to go black (I will levee, the uniforms do look cool). Also, Nebraska was once known as the "Black shirt defense". But let's view the jerseys

No Black there...

Not much black there...

So what is the deal? What confuses me more is that these are NIGHT games, in BLACK-Shirt filled stadiums. One lesson that my Mom always told me is if your going to play at night, wear something BRIGHT! Now, i know there are blaring lights in the stadium. I'm not Joe Paterno, we can play night games right now. But won't the Georgia/Nebraska fans tend to blend in with their own team? I can just imagine Matthew Stafford, "Ok, i got the ball, let's see... Well I know who NOT to throw too. But um, all im seeing are red helmets running around...crap". I know, that wont be the case. However, Black and Night....they tend to blend together the last time I checked

Let me put it in perspective here. Appalachian State and Missouri... not doing blackouts today. Nebraska and Georgia, going black. Um, can't we do a promotion like... "The Red Sea"? That's pretty catchy. I'm all about student unity... and blatant commercialism... but um, use the colors that you normally use! That goes for you to Virginia Tech... no more whiteouts.

Blackouts are fine, I'll even let Nebraska and Georgia doing a blackout slide... DO IT ON DIFFERENT WEEKS!

Though, I'm digging the new template scheme... Maybe these two teams have caught on to something...