Someone didn’t do a lot of critical thinking when it came to selecting this year’s homecoming theme. Western themes can be a lot of fun, particularly when dressing up is encouraged. However, when playing a team called the Cowboys, it’s probably not the best choice.
The last home football game of the season will feature an homage to the wild west, complete with decorations featuring cowboys. Essentially, this theme means that students will be dressed in a visual symbol of support for the other team and the decorations will be equally supportive of New Mexico Highlands when they travel to Grand Junction on Saturday.
To truly understand how ill-thought out the theme is, consider the relationship between cowboys and cattle in the grand old days of the wild west. Cowboys roped and subdued cattle, bending them to their will.
Colorado Mesa University’s mascot is a maverick. Mavericks are bulls, otherwise known as male cattle.
All of this put together means the theme of the game between the Cowboys playing the Mavericks is a celebration of cowboys dominating mavericks. That would make complete sense if the event was planned by the New Mexico school. Coming from CMU, the theme is asinine.
It is a good thing the Cowboys are not expected to present a big challenge for the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) championship contender Mavericks. Otherwise, the theme could be seen as foreshadowing.
Considering the theme, the Mavs had best lay a beatdown on the visiting team like they are expected to do. Imagine how embarrassing it would be to have the Cowboys dominate the Mavericks at a homecoming game where the theme is the wild west.
In a situation like that, it would make sense for fans prone to superstition to place the blame for the loss squarely on the shoulders of the people who thought celebrating cowboys was a great idea for the New Mexico game.
On the plus side, it will probably be the warmest welcome any visiting team has ever had at Stocker Stadium. I know that I have never before been to a game where the home team celebrated the rival’s mascot dominating over their own.
But there’s a first time for everything, as the planning committee for this year’s homecoming has made sure to demonstrate. Good for them.
They chose to break away from the norms of school spirit and promote the opponent. I realize it’s a bit tongue-in-cheek considering the theme, but they really are pioneers in this regard; bravely blazing a trail absolutely no other planning committee would dream of.
When any theme other than one involving cowboys, which is literally every other possible theme, could have been sufficient, our brave heroes valiantly said, “No, we shall celebrate the opposition.”
An obvious theme could have been going with Halloween. After all, the game lands right before the holiday that embraces playing dress-up. Since the Mavs won’t be playing the New Mexico Highlands Spooks, that would have been fine.
Space, medieval times, roaring twenties and undersea were all perfectly viable options. The list of themes that would have worked is almost inexhaustible. But the genius behind the homecoming theme declared that since CMU plays the Cowboys, the theme must involve a time when cowboys wrangled mavericks.
To be fair, whoever thought up the idea might have consciously chosen wild west specifically because of the mascots involved. They may have decided that it would be neat to use the theme since cowboys and mavericks were at odds in the days of the wild west.
It was simply neglected to follow that thought through to assessing who dominated those confrontations. That is where there was a breakdown in critical thinking.
Hopefully that Mavericks will not view the theme as a script for the game. Ideally, CMU will trample their opponents that share entirely too much with the homecoming theme. Even more ideally, a little more thought will go into future themes. Perhaps such themes will not provide visual cheerleading for the visiting team.
