A House Divided

A story by: Griffin Cotter

        It was a dark, cold, wintry night when Tim and Suzy Cotter left their beloved kids with their dear baby sitter, Jane Cann also known as Momma Jane.  The elder Cotters were embarking on a trip that would take them into warmer climates of the south where they will pay homage to their beloved gladiators of the gridiron.  You see Time and Suzy Cotter were avid mountaineer football fans, and the blue and gold were making a pilgrimage to a post-season bowl game.  While the Cotters were busy basking in the sun and enjoying the fellowship of fellow mountaineers, Momma Jane was back in the frigid mountains of West Virginia transforming the third generation mountaineer fans into members of the Thundering Herd.  No longer do the innocent Cotter kids bleed gold and blue, no longer do they hum Country Roads, but now they chant names like Moss, Pennington, Leftwhich and Pruett.  In the next few minutes you will hear both sides of the story: blue and gold vs. green and white, a house divided.

        “I wasn’t trying to convert them; they just grew up in my house watching Marshall football games.  And I was very adamant about the fact that I bleed green and white.” Momma Jane said.  What is so great about this is that Momma Jane grew up in a house of mountaineer fans.  Her brother thinks that WVU should be the only school in the state.

        Momma Jane started liking Marshall on her high school trips to Huntington for the state Catholic basketball tournament, which were held at the Huntington Field House.

        She had to pass the campus to get to the field house and fell in love with the school.  Those few trips made her a herd fan.

        She never got to attend Marshall, her dad said it was too far, but for some reason the University has held a special place in her heart.  Her dream came true when both of her daughters attended.  That too played a big role in converting the Cotter kids and the fact that they visited Marshall on a regular basis with momma Jane.

        Another big part of the kids’ love for the green and white is the football team’s stars and success in the mid to late nineties.  Marshall had Pennington, Moss and Leftwich, let alone Coach Pruett, WVU had no one.  WVU was best in the early nineties, before the boys knew the difference between green and blue let alone a buffalo and mountaineer

        “I am proud to be a mountaineer fan.  I inherited it.  My grandmother raised my father who raised me to love the blue and gold.  How my kids aren’t fans is beyond me.” says Tim.

        “The boys didn’t have as much blue and gold influence as they did green and white.  They spent a lot of time with Momma Jane, who loved Marshall.  I guess it just rubbed off,” said Suzy.

        Even with the difference in opinion Tim and Suzy expressed little to no grief.  “The taunting of green and white through the Marshall glory days was somewhat hard to accept because my children were not respectful losers” was Tim’s complaint. That and the fact that he will never get Momma Jane to like WVU.

        “When I do laundry I always have a special green load,” said Suzy.

        Believe it or not the blue and gold bleeding parents and the Marshall loving kids and baby sitter are best friends and get along well, but Tim and Suzy are still guessing on how their kids became green blooded.  So, a Buffalo or a Mounty, green or blue, or both, the Cotters have learned to live with it and accept the fact that they’ll always live in a house divided.