Title Town USA: Gameday on Campus

Title Town USA: Northwest Missouri State 49, Northeastern State 7

My alma matter, My wife's hometown made the front pages of Gameday.

I spent 20+ years of my life in this community, I was at both the games mentioned in this article.

One town racked up a 60-0 record across all football teams in the town from Middle School through the University.

A really good synopsis on life in this Midwest College town.


Like most towns in the Heartland, football is central to life in Maryville. There are more radio stations broadcasting football on Friday nights than playing music. “There’s not much to do around here,” one resident explained. “On Saturdays in the fall, everyone goes to the game.” High school games attract a few thousand fans while college games regularly bring in eight or nine thousand. Walking around during the week, talk centers on the team’s past performance and their chances going forward.

While student interest has increased in recent years, it’s really the town that has embraced the team. Traditionally, the division 2 Championship game is held in Florence, Alabama, an eleven-hour drive from Maryville. When Northwest is in the game, the entire town shuts down as people crowd into cars and pick-up trucks to make the pilgrimage south. “It felt like a home game last year because we had so many fans there. Basically the whole town went,” a resident told me. “Many people centered their holiday travels around the game.”

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A Northwest alum who has served as a geography professor for the past three decades described this feeling as pride in place. “Football is sort of like modern warfare – it’s tribal. You have these different towns or tribes all battling each other and that creates a sense of pride in your own community.” The Professor, Ted Doudge, spends much of his time creating a variety of sports related maps (think: number of recruits from different regions of the country). One of his maps shows the average Division 2 attendance over the past decade around the country. He uses different sized footballs to indicate scale. Maryville has the largest football.

The team’s on-field success has spilled into the community. Increased attendance has boosted revenue for hotels and restaurants. Added exposure has led to a surge in university applications and alumni donations. A local bank even donated a multi-million dollar jumbotron this past year.


http://gamedayoncampus.com/2014/10/title-town-usa-northwest-missouri-state-49-northeastern-state-7/