Published: October 19, 2009 11:11 pm      

Marshall, WVU fans friendly despite rivalry

Cold weather forecasts did not dampen the spirit of many Marshall University football fans as they made the long drive to tailgate among fellow Mountaineer followers for the 2009 Friends of Coal Bowl last weekend in Morgantown.

And longtime school rivalries did not dampen the friendly spirit of the big game.

The Big Green Scholarship Foundation, the funding organization for Marshall’s athletic scholarships, hosted a tailgate and barbecue hours before Saturday’s match-up in Morgantown. One couple stood out in that tailgate area’s sea of green: J.R. Yost and Allison Nedley made their first trip from Charleston to see Marshall take on West Virginia University and attend the Big Green tailgate.

Nedley was one of few at the Big Green tailgate to wear WVU blue and old gold, while Yost wore his alma mater’s green and white. Growing up in Uniontown, Pa., a fan of WVU football and basketball, Nedley ignored her boyfriend’s suggestions to wear green, although they had tickets for sections of Milan Puskar Stadium reserved for Marshall fans.

The couple says their arguments about football are never too frequent or intense.

“But when we do, I win,” Nedley said.

Still, Nedley was welcome at the Big Green tailgate. The foundation rented space for approximately 140 vehicles at an office plaza, a mile downhill from Milan Puskar Stadium.

“Our overall goal is to bring Marshall fans together before the ball game,” said John Sutherland, an organizer for the foundation’s tailgate.

Sutherland’s expectations were for around 150 fans to show up for the tailgate, but by game day, fewer were expected to make the trip to Morgantown due to cold weather conditions.

Brandon Huffman braved the cold. A graduate of Marshall University, Huffman can remember fighting about Marshall football with WVU fans going back to the schools’ 1997 match-up.

The 2005 Marshall alumnus has been going to Thundering Herd games since he was an infant and is a regular at the tailgating scene in Huntington. Huffman considers himself to be the only Marshall fan from Braxton County.

“I look forward to this four to five hours a day. It makes my week, tailgating,” Huffman said.

A bad experience with WVU fans during the 1997 game had kept Huffman away from the previous two Marshall-WVU games in Morgantown. But this year he was willing to tailgate away from his usual scene. Why? Because in his opinion, Marshall had the better team.

Dick Kesterson’s loyalty, on the other hand, was split between the two teams. Kesterson spent the morning roasting a pig in a homemade wood-burning stove for the Big Green tailgate. As a resident of Parkersburg, he grew up a WVU fan until his son, Justin, enrolled, and later graduated, from Marshall.

“I’m one of those who don’t really care as long as long as it’s a good ball game,” Kesterson said.

Kesterson took his son to several WVU games in Morgantown during the boy’s childhood. But when the young man chose to attend Marshall, the father and son switched to attending Thundering Herd games together.

Kesterson worked the wood-burning stove for the Big Green tailgate because of connections between the organizers and his work in Parkersburg.