Defending Your School (sort Of).. A Story

[CaribbeanGreen]

Self-indulgent personal story, so indulge if you wish, otherwise, close the thread for your own sanity.

I swear, I tried to bury this, but it still infuriates me one year later. Last April, my girlfriend and I went on a 7-day cruise out of Galveston. Had a wonderful time, loved every minute, blah blah blah... anyway, one of the little niche activites on sea days they offer is various trivia contests during the day. They're really simple - you go to whatever lounge they're held in, they pass out sheets of paper and pencils, and you begin with whatever themed contest they have that day. At the end, you either grade your own or trade with a nearby team (usually you can have up to four people per group). Winner gets something inconsequential, like luggage tags or a water bottle.

Anyway, we had been to a few of these throughout the week, done ok (I'm a trivia nerd), just a simple diversion. Well, mid week sometime during one afternoon, the two of us go to a Sports trivia thing -- basically, my girlfriend sat and stared, while I scribbled furiously. I was wearing a NT t-shirt... this becomes very relevant in a moment. Near us, there's a table of two couples, probably mid-30's. From the attire, it's VERY obvious we have two Longhorns and two Baylor alums, and this would have just been background noise if it wasn't for how arrogant they came off -- we heard them telling the guy administering the trivia (unsolicited) just how good they were, how back home in Houston, they went to these organized trivia things weekly, and they had literally walls of trophies at home, so they were loving this onboard... we laughed at them to one another, but not taking things too seriously, just ordered another drink and went back to things...

So, as we're about to get started, I realized the pencil they gave us was REALLY dull, so I walked up to the stage to get another one.... no big deal. As I'm walking back, past this BU/UT foursome, the guy in the Baylor hat stops and says this... "North Texas... Mean Green, huh?" Hey, great, i think... "Yeah!" i say... "I had a good friend who went to North Texas" he says... I'm really loving this now, hearing this somewhere off the coast of Honduras and all... "No kidding? Cool!" i say as I walk by... "Yeah" he says... "He failed out of college, so he went to North Texas, because NOBODY can fail out there!"... they all laugh.

I kid you not. This happened.

I was walking by, so I just kept walking, and at this moment determined that, quite simply, the best revenge was not to say a damn word... yet, quite simply, it was to make sure I did the best I could on this thing... sports trivia was my wheelhouse. I was PISSED... and I knew how seriously they took this. Here came the questions. Twenty of them. They were hard.. some about UEFA, some about F1... but I knew I did okay... they were so arrogant about their skills, I was nervous.. he read out the answers, then asked what everyone had.. going around the lounge, people shouted out the number correct... 6... 8...9...3...11... then it got to them.. "14" they shouted, high fiving each other and laughing smugly...

I looked down at my paper. I smiled. The host looked at me. "16," i said... "Go Mean Green!"..... they looked so, so bitter. I took my crummy luggage tags proudly, and took a long drink of my beer.

Afterwards, the Baylor hat guy actually walks OVER TO OUR TABLE... he asks to see my answer sheet. Not kidding. I should have been offended, I should have given him a piece of my mind, but you know what? I knew I'd really beaten their ass, so i just handed him my sheet and kicked my feet up. He looked at it, then handed it back and they walked away, bitching about whatever excuse I'm sure they cooked up.

There were two days left on the cruise. Three more trivia events. TV themes, Geography, and Movies.

They went to every event. They wouldn't win again.

I have a drawer full of luggage tags and sports bottles now. F them.

To this day, it infuriates me to think of the arrogance, and how i'm sure there's some way they justify the fool with the inferior education whipping their ass. I'm satisfied, but I won't lie.. it still maddens me.

Have you ever had a situation where you felt the need to defend your affiliation?

[SilverEagle]

Actually the saying about North Texas is that "it's not hard to get into North Texas, the hard part is getting out".

BTW, WAY TO GO! .....AND GO MEAN GREEN!

[UNT_playmaker]

I loved your story. Im sure all of us had a similiar incidents with arrogant big 12 douce bags like the ones mentioned in your story.

You should have reminded him of the ass whooping we gave them on our home turf years ago..

I always have to deal with people who trash us after we lose 40+ points to the defending ncaa football champions. We always seem to play the defending champions each year.

Edited June 2, 2008 by UNT_playmaker

[LongJim]

"Yeah" he says... "He failed out of college, so he went to North Texas, because NOBODY can fail out there!"

YOU: <nodding in agreement> "Usually. Although one exception is when your football team came to Denton and got skullf@*ked."

YOU: "Hahaha! I heard nobody fails out at Baylor, either. They just murder you and bury you in a shallow grave. Or wait--you guys probably still crucify--being a church school and all, right?"

[Green Mean]

What phathoms me is the audacity people have in this country is many people putting eachother down based on where they went to school to get an EDUCATION! Its so pathetic and embarrasing because I look around the world and there are billions of people that dont even get the opportunity to even get a HS education but less college. I dont want to call these "Big 12 douches"...they are more like societal douches. Why do people put down other people based on the school they went to and their perception of the education? Whether you take math in Harvard or NCTC, to me its ALL THE SAME! In the end its EDUCATION! So pathetic in my opinion.

[Eagle1855]

YOU: <nodding in agreement> "Usually. Although one exception is when your football team came to Denton and got skullf@*ked."

YOU: "Hahaha! I heard nobody fails out at Baylor, either. They just murder you and bury you in a shallow grave. Or wait--you guys probably still crucify--being a church school and all, right?"

very nicely done.

[KRAM1]

Baylor has no foundation to stand on when it comes to academics...and UT is no tougher to graduate from than any other school. I know folks who can't spell "academics who graduated from both of those fine institutions of higher learning. The education you receive from UNT is as good or better than any other place...it's what you do with it that counts. Obviously, these guys didn't learn much about "class" when they went to BU and UT...by the way...are you aware if they even graduated????

UNT has NO REASON to play second fiddle to either of these places...bigger and more expensive does not mean you are better!

[meangreendork]

They went to every event. They wouldn't win again.

Way to show them who's boss!