Thursday, April 11, 2019
Political Mayhem Thursday: They Might Kick Us Out!
The school where I teach, St. Thomas, is a Division III school whose teams play in the 13-member Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic League, or MIAC. It's kind of a fun league that features teams known as the Tommies (St. Thomas), the Johnnies (St. John's), the Gusties (Gustavus Adolphus), the Bennies (St. Benedict's), the Olies (St. Olaf), the Augies (Augsburg) and the Knights (Carleton, who didn't get the memo).
It turns out, according to a report in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the other schools are thinking about kicking us out of the league because St. Thomas is too big and not great at sportsmanship:
"There were mostly shrugs for years over the Tommies’ frequent league titles through the fall, winter and spring sports calendar until Glenn Caruso arrived in 2008 as the football coach and quickly built a powerhouse. The Tommies posted lopsided victories over the MIAC’s second-division teams; in a three-week period in 2017, they defeated Hamline 84-0 and St. Olaf 97-0."
“That St. Olaf game seemed to get people upset,” said Steve Johnson, Bethel’s football coach. “We started hearing more about it.”
I wrote about this previously, after watching the football team defeat Carleton 80-3, in a game where St. Thomas was throwing long passes and seeking two-point conversion to run up the score late in the game. It was embarrassing, and not representative of what St. Thomsa claims as its values. I understand the point that the other schools are making.
