I like sports, but as an artist I’m naturally not inclined to follow the pack. I will not wear Ohio State’s scarlet and gray even in the summer. This limits me somewhat because as a color combo I have no objection to scarlet and gray.
Kriti and I watch Ohio State football and basketball games on television with no buckeye necklaces or bobble heads sitting on top of the TV.
Here on Rarotonga I have switched from OSU football and basketball (at least until I return to Columbus, Ohio USA) to New Zealand Rugby. I have travelled from scarlet and gray to all black, from Carmen Ohio to the “Ka Mate” Haka. The Haka is officially recognized as the New Zealand warrior chant.
The Game – I have noticed that the same rugby players play both offense and defense, rugby players are, player for player, in much better condition than American football players. In Rugby an equivalent to the American football touchdown is the scoring of a “Try” and after a team scores a Try they get the ball back.
I have also noticed that the team “brands” are both rather innocuous. Brutus Buckeye is a walking, silent, nut. The brand for the New Zealand All Blacks is a fern leaf.
Comparing the Ohio State alma mater song Carmen Ohio with the Haka has a bit of irony in that the present Haka is called “Ka Mate” and was introduced in 1905. Carmen Ohio was introduced in 1906. There are plenty of film clips on the internet of both Haka’s and Carmen Ohio being performed.
At this point the irony ends. Haka’s are performed throughout New Zealand for everything from sporting events to a farewell to sailing ships which are called vakas. A vaka, in this context, is an ancient Maori doubled hulled sailing ship, recreated and sailed all over Polynesia.
This week seven vaka ships left our Rarotongan port for a journey to Samoa then on to New Zealand. From the deck of one vaka I spotted the crew lined up and, although I could not hear them, I saw their feet stomping the ships deck as they sailed out of port. Wikipedia has called the Haka “the greatest ritual in world sport”.
But then somewhere in the back reaches of my mind I saw scarlet and gray uniforms and the men wearing them spelling out
O – H – I – O.
johncharlesdavies 