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Monday, March 16, 2015

SOL 16: The Real Story of March Madness.



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So, I'm an Iowan.  
The brackets for NCAA March Tournaments have our three major universities in the tournament with respectable seeds.  

The University of Iowa:  7th Seed.
Iowa State University:  3rd Seed.
The University of Northern Iowa: 5th Seed.

But the real story is a story of The Siblings and their Water Mugs.  

We each attended one of these universities.  
My Brother:  A graduate from Iowa State.  
My Sister:  The University of Iowa.  (Then a doctorate later from University of Minnesota.)
Me:  The University of Northern Iowa.  (Anticipated Master's Degree coming right up!)

The rivalries are real.  But none can rival The Water Mug rivalry of the late 90s.  
Mom and Dad had mugs, similar to this one:


They had one for each university.  Mom would arrange them on the top of the kitchen cabinets.  The joke would be when we were arriving and leaving from home in the late 90s, we would rearrange them so the Right Mug was where it should be: in the center position to represent number one. 

If you know us, you can hear the advocacy taking place when we were all home at once.  Talking over each other, sneaking into the kitchen to move the Right Mug to the center position.  Hooting and Hollering when you realized that someone had moved Your Mug.  

So as the tournament starts, I'm so proud of my state.  
This family loves basketball; so the excitement is real.  
May the best team win.  (It's the Panthers of UNI if you didn't know...)  :)  

And I'm drinking my water this morning out of the Right Mug.  (See above photo.)  

Joy!
Kendra

5 comments:

  1. This is so fun! I love harmless feuds like the "Right Mug". For one of our wedding presents, my mother-in-law made a blanket for me and my husband. One side represents the Chiefs (my husband's team) and the other shows off the Steelers (my team, and obviously the best team). We now have a folding rivalry. When the other isn't looking we fold the blanket so that the best team is displayed.

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  2. This is so fun! I love harmless feuds like the "Right Mug". For one of our wedding presents, my mother-in-law made a blanket for me and my husband. One side represents the Chiefs (my husband's team) and the other shows off the Steelers (my team, and obviously the best team). We now have a folding rivalry. When the other isn't looking we fold the blanket so that the best team is displayed.

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  3. That's so funny! I don't have siblings, so I enjoy hearing stories about them. I can picture my daughters having a similar feud over Miami U. and Ohio State. ;-)

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  4. What a fun story! My previous student teacher was a UNI grad.

    We could carry our rivalry piece further. All your Iowa NCAA teams vs. all those from Illinois. You set up the brackets. I get first pick.

    interested?

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  5. Oh my, how do you manage, Kendra. So funny. Nearly all of my family went to the Univ. of Mo. & I try to watch the March Madness when I can, but I don't think my Tigers made it this year. Go Panthers, then! I love watching the games in March!

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