by BUFanatic » March 12th, 2025, 1:31 am
First off I have to hand it to you for covering Valpo the way you do. I greatly miss Kirk and Doug with the PJS (it was almost more exciting for me to see the write up than the game itself). Wish local reporting were better and we (BU) had someone better than an old hockey guy who pretends to care about BU now that he finally got the assignment.
That being said... I lived through years of BU and Drake playing on Thursday. Didn't see intro videos but the teams that have been in the conference longer have more history at Arch Madness (typically where the highlight reel comes from). I remember years where BU was only featured because of the ridiculous Shot heard round the world highlight. Comes with the territory.
As to your history point... the Valley has been around a LONG time. It's seen members come and go and was essentially the precursor to the Big 8 (Drake is the last original member). Teams have gone up and down in the past 100+ years since it's founding. The Drake (The Dean) won several league titles in the 30s before doing anything until the late 60s which saw a string of postseason success until the early 70s. Did nothing again until one season and only recently started finding regular success.
Valpo, on the other hand, has been playing since 1917. They did not win a league championship at any level until 72/73 and were totally irrelevant until catching fire with Homer Drew in 1994. Scott left for Baylor and has now won a National Championship. Bryce carried it on for a while until getting a P5 offer.
The Drews were great but it was a family that could promote the success of the father or the brothers and The Shot. Once the Drews left and they moved to the MVC, everything fell apart. When the Valley added Loyola, I knew they would get there and they did. When UIC joined the Valley, I knew they would get there and they're well on their way. Valpo is the only team that joined where in my lifetime I felt like they would never belong, partly owing to the fact that I spent a year on campus as a Freshman.
When we say the Valley runs deep, we mean it. We mean the whole history of our conference which wasn't made in the last 30 years but consists of ups and downs over a 100+ year period of time. Valpo hasn't been offensive like Loyola/Wichita were, but I am not sure Valpo will ever be a cultural fit due to their lack of success long term.
Sorry for this extended post but in my time on this Earth I've seen WSU, Creighton, MoSt, and Loyola leave this conference and the conference replace these teams with Loyola, Belmont, Murray, and UIC. I know people who still aren't used to Evansville being a Valley member but they're very similar to Bradley with their past lower division success and community support so I have a soft spot for them. Tulsa left before I was born and I still hate those mfs (though I've never seen them play each other there's an official who went to Tulsa who gets assigned to BU games who's clearly biased against BU in those games as he went to Tulsa when they were in the conference). That's the kind of history that makes the Valley run deep. Valpo is the only team that will never fit, no matter how much they try. They could be great in another conference but it's just not ours.
Belmont, Murray, and UIC get a pass because they're really new but ask yourself the question if you'll root for Drake, BU, ISU, and whatever other team makes a postseason tournament and why. If you don't have a reason you don't belong. (I'll begrudgingly root for The Drake, obviously BU, and ISU only because we've owend them recently lol).
Best to you and Valpo but I'm sick of having to play in a high school gym at a borderline institution with a failed law school that has absolutely no interest in rising to the level of an MVC program.
Keep up the fight.
