Evan Thue –
The University of Wisconsin-Stout sits 45 minutes from the Minnesota border. Naturally, many UW-Stout students are from Minnesota and are consequently Vikings fans. Many students like to represent their team proudly, and one rivalry that is very prevalent on campus is the Vikings vs. Packers rivalry.
“I am a very proud and passionate fan,” said Jacob Halbert, a junior at UW-Stout and a huge supporter of the Minnesota Vikings. Halbert watches every game he can and tries to attend games regularly. “Well, I wouldn’t use the term ‘super fan’ because you know who those are, but, I generally get pretty loud either if I’m in my room or at the game.”
On the flip-side, Halbert’s roommate Daniel Worden, who is also a junior at UW-Stout, has the same passion, but for a different team. “I have been rooting for the Packers ever since I was a kid. I watch every game on Sunday and if I miss one, I’ll always watch it back,” said Worden.
Worden and Halbert both agree that on Sunday, it’s a time to put everything else aside and watch the games together. “I mean almost every Sunday we try to get together and watch the games. We try and switch between games, so we can try to watch both,” said Halbert.
When the Vikings and the Packers played each other on Sep 16, all bets were off. “It’s a friendly rivalry for sure. We’re not mean to each other, but I mean I was happy when we didn’t end up losing the game,” said Worden.
That game ended up being a 29 to 29 tie. Both Halbert and Worden agreed that no matter who won they wanted someone to be victorious. “We just wanted someone to have a little bragging right until the next meet-up, but now we have to wait a while,” said Halbert. “It is pretty cool though that you could walk around on campus and if you asked somebody, ‘Hey, did you see the game?’ they would know what you were talking about. It does kind of feel like it’s a campus-wide event.”
The Vikings and the Packers next game will be on Sunday November 25. Although we aren’t certain who the victor is, we know that these two will be watching and ready to cheer.