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FOOTBALL What does the MT/WKU rivalry mean to you?

Matt Dossett

All American
Staff
May 14, 2016
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I’ll wait for responses and then assemble article... What are some of your fondest memories and biggest heartbreaks?
 
It honestly meant nothing to me in the beginning. My association with MT started in 98, so we had not played in 7 years. Didn’t start back playing until I had been out of M’boro 6 years. Troy and UNT felt more like a rival than WKU during that hiatus.

Then we played them again. For me that 2007 game was a big dud. Flew into town for that one, still had hoped since Stock was in year 2 and we just came a few seconds from winning the SB. Just a dud.

As for enjoyable games, the 2009 & 2014 games have to be high on the list for me.
 
Honestly, most of my memories are connected with basketball

Back when we were in the ovc:

As a student I traveled three times to Diddle Arena. mind you this was just a few years removed from WKU's Final Four appearance. Each time I sat in the bleachers where their suites are now. The arena seated about 15k back then.

The only thing I remember from the first time is there about 1500 MT fans in the bleachers and a lot of us students were singing a little ditty with a western flair. 'Western, Western, Western, how'd you like to bite my .....

The second time, the biggest thing I remember is the western point guard after the inbounds dribbled to mid court completely out of bounds the ovc ref watching him and did not stop play.

The third time, a very good MT team played extremely well and won 102-95 (this was long before a shot clock and long before the three point shot). We won our first conference championship tourney in basketball that year (wku was not eligible due to NCAA violations that year but MT swept wku in conference play so there was no argument who was the better team)

Also a home game with wku when I was a student, I watched on four straight trips down the floor, Freddy Allen launch shots just a couple feet past the midcourt circle and hit them. This was before the arc and the three point shot.

In 1982, watched as WKU hosted the ovc tourney in their last season as a member of the ovc, MT squeaked by Murray State IIRC in semifinals and met wku in finals and upset them. MT advanced to NCAA where MT in first round of NCAA defeated Kentucky Wildcats in Nashville.

I think it was Kermit's second year that MT beat wku in Diddle during the tourney, and Kermit inserted a walk on guard from Bowling Green to dribble out the last seconds of the game.


In football, I remember traveling up to watch Kelly Holcomb play as freshman and happened to sit behind Dr James Walker who was sitting with the regular MT fans. That was the last game MT and wku played for awhile. Boots was extremely unhappy with old man harbaugh who taken in a QB transfer from MT who was stealing MT signals from the wku coach's booth. It would be the last game played for about 15 years until wku moved to 1a and it became a sun belt conference game.

I remember traveling to BG in 2015 with some friends and leaving at half or just before half because wku was stomping MT and exposing CRS as the clueless coach we all know him to be now...

WKU has had the upper hand since we both moved to CUSA. What bothers me is that 1-4 record the last five years should bother Stockstill, Massaro, and McPhee, but it apparently doesn't.
 
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Fondest Memory:
The 2014 3OT win in Murfreesboro.

Biggest Heartbreaks:
Driving up to Bowling Green in 2015 for the
slaughter.
Sitting though the 2016 2OT loss in Murfreesboro and then flying down to watch WKU’s 51-31 beat down of Memphis in Boca Raton Bowl.
 
For me, most of the excitement was reading about in the storied past. In the 50s and 60s, Western WAS the OVC! Especially with legends of Edgar A. Diddle Sr. (BTW his son was a head basketball coach at MTSC in late 1950s, before Ken Trickey) and later John Oldham coached WKU (Oldham last led Tenn Tech to the NCAAs in 1963 and WKU to the Final Four in 1971). As an eyewitness as a small child, several basketball and football games were disappointing because we lost more than we won as I recall. And then WKU headed to the Sun Belt in 1982: they were “big stuff” and we were “little middle” in their eyes and many throughout the region. Their games were televised for years on WBKO-13 and they had coaches shows, whereas we did not have such exposure. The rivalry drifted apart during the eighties and nineties, as I came of age.

Today, the rivalry is renewed. It doesn’t have the same bitterness, but it’s a fair measure of the state of MT’s sport. It’s a bellwether.

Greatest Memories: Operation Full House in basketball (honoring Aaron Todd) and the 2014 OT win in Football.

Honorable Mention: I do vaguely remember 1975 basketball wins that Space mentioned. Was a small child and didn’t fully process the magnitude as eyewitness at MC. That game and the other basketball game that year at Diddle (was our first win at WKU since 1932—as Monte Hale Sr broadcasted on WMTS FM then) were the most historic in the series and meaningful towards Coach Jimmy Earle’s banner year as OVC Champion. 1975 was outstanding for MT!

Greatest Loss: The 2011 or 2016 losses in football, both overtime losses. Take your pick!
 
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It once meant a lot to me. I could really care less today. My attitude is right there with the coaches.
 
I don't know. Big letdown in 2007 when WKU was in transition football wise. I honestly don't get too excited for the Western games.

Saturday, October 15, 2016 - The day Rick Stockstill had a pregame interview stating that if Western beat us, we were still in the drivers seat.

fyi...we weren't
 
Nothing as I thing this one of the many issues with MTSU is a lack of true rivalry. Perhaps WKU will eventually become that team, but it will require more wins by MTSU and both teams developing a constantly successful football program.
 
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