From: Phil deHaan (dehp@calvin.edu)
Date: Fri Jan 10 2003 - 16:35:11 EST
January 13, 2003 == FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Calvin-Hope men's basketball rivalry is widely regarded as one of the best in NCAA Division III circles. It's been the subject of stories in everything from Sports Illustrated to ESPN Magazine.
Like any good rivalry it features two dominant men's basketball programs. Calvin and Hope, located just 35 miles apart in West Michigan, have won outright or shared 45 of 48 MIAA titles since 1953. And either Calvin or Hope has won every MIAA conference title since 1982. Both schools also excel at the national level with Calvin owning two NCAA national championships in the last decade and Hope having won an NCAA runner-up title.
Both schools rarely get the better of each other. In fact, over 149 games (the teams will meet for their historic 150th meeting on January 18, 2003) Calvin leads the series 77-72 and has outscored Hope by just 26 points.
The rivalry is so big to fans of the two programs that the schools team up every year to broadcast the Saturday contest (each year one game is on a Saturday afternoon and one on a Wednesday night) across the continent via the wonders of satellite.
So, this year, on Saturday, January 18 over 2,000 Calvin and Hope fans will gather at almost 50 sites to watch "The Game," as it's simply known now. They'll be in Calgary, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Chicago, Palm Beach, Seattle, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., New York City, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Kalamazoo and many more locales, all gathered together to watch their alma maters go head-to-head one more time. For the complete list See www.calvin.edu/thegame
At each of those sites they'll be drinking in a rivalry that once preempted a president's state of the union address, a rivalry that once drew 11,442 people to a game in downtown Grand Rapids at VanAndel Arena and established an NCAA Division III single game attendance record that is not likely to be broken.
The Calvin and Hope alumni associations partner to make The Game possible on satellite, sending the broadcast of WGVU TV, the Grand Rapids PBS affiliate (yes PBS carries the game live in Grand Rapids!), to the various sites that sign up for the event. At the satellite sites organizers hand out special game programs, conduct trivia contests and generally create the same festive atmosphere one might find at the Calvin Fieldhouse or the Holland Civic Center (Hope's home court).
The Game was first sent out on satellite in 1999 and has been a staple of the two school's alumni association programming ever since. Calvin and Hope also make the radio feed of the contests available on their website and have a special "The Game" website set up for fans who want to get the scoop on The Game ahead of time.
Despite all the hype The Game continues to be marked by mutual respect and sportsmanship. Many of the players know each other from summer ball, church connections and high school careers. None of them are on athletic scholarships (there are no such scholarships in Division III) and in attending Calvin and Hope they've chosen two of the top academic schools in the midwest. So basketball, while important, is an extracurricular activity.
"It's a special game," says Calvin alumni association director Mike VanDenend. "Our partnership with Hope and WGVU to give the game wider distribution is an annual highlight. Alumni from coast to coast are looking forward to another great contest on January 18."
Contact Mike VanDenend at 616-957-6142
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