Dear ESPN

[floydnimrod]

Congratulations to Valdosta, but when I think of "Titletown" I think of a city that doesn't rely on just one sports team. I think of a town that has multiple titles in different sports.

[apeman33]

Uhh, except Parkersburg, WV has 193 state titles, and 182 since 1950. Valdosta? Titletown? I think not.

(Not like anyone actually gives a :censored:. Right?)

I'm talking football.

Parkersburg High 11 State titles (3 of which were won without a tournament, merely voted on by writers)

Parkersburg South has won 1 State title (2003)

Yes, but this is Titletown, not Footballtown.

But aside from that, my problem with a lot (not all) of the nominated cities had success in primarily one sport at one level. Yes, Lawrence is the home of a few national basketball titles and many state high school champions, but it's still not up there with Valdosta or Parkersburg.

Knoxville was nominated only because of women's basketball. You could say that Boston is professional Titletown but what do you know of its colleges and high schools?

[footballfiji]

Uhh, except Parkersburg, WV has 193 state titles, and 182 since 1950. Valdosta? Titletown? I think not.

(Not like anyone actually gives a :censored:. Right?)

I'm talking football.

Parkersburg High 11 State titles (3 of which were won without a tournament, merely voted on by writers)

Parkersburg South has won 1 State title (2003)

Yes, but this is Titletown, not Footballtown.

But aside from that, my problem with a lot (not all) of the nominated cities had success in primarily one sport at one level. Yes, Lawrence is the home of a few national basketball titles and many state high school champions, but it's still not up there with Valdosta or Parkersburg.

Knoxville was nominated only because of women's basketball. You could say that Boston is professional Titletown but what do you know of its colleges and high schools?

The original Titletown referred to Green Bay and was due to football success. America is a football country.

I'm sure Knoxville was nominated for the success of UT football and swimming as well as the women's basketball program.

[dbackdiehard17]

ESPN got their wish. We are debating something that was as pointless as it was stupid. They do this , people talk about how dumb it is, and then here we are posting in an entire thread devoted to the outcome of said stupid ESPN event. Sheer -ing genius on their part.

Excellent, excellent point. That's why these execs get paid the big bucks. And this still wasn't worse then Who's Now, just more annoying because there was practically no criteria set. It was just mumbo jumbo to get hype and ratings, and it worked. I personally thought it would be Boston or New York or LA and I am shocked Valdosta won. My thought is the big cities could care less, and SC visitng Valdosta was the biggest thing in that town's life, so everyone probably voted. That's my logic.

[The_Admiral]

Green Bay is Titletown because that's what its nickname is. It's like trying to name The Big Apple, The Windy City, the Cradle of Civilization, or the Red Planet. No. That's New York, Chicago, Babylonia, and Mars.

[Ted Cunningham]

Uhh, except Parkersburg, WV has 193 state titles, and 182 since 1950. Valdosta? Titletown? I think not.

(Not like anyone actually gives a :censored:. Right?)

Fun Fact: The last state title I think that any of the three Parkersburg high schools won was the 2008 state bowling title won by Parkersburg South's women's team. My sister was one of the six bowlers on that team.

I personally found it funny/sad/interesting how the voting went down in this contest. I really love how Boston fans were the only 'big city' fans to really care enough about this contest to go on ESPN.com and vote multiple times. That's the only way that small towns like Valdosta and Parkersburg got to the top. My mom told me she voted 25 times for Parkersburg, and my sister did the same. Then, the next day (this past Sunday maybe?) Mom went on ESPN.com again to do the same, but found that ESPN had blocked multiple votes from any one IP address. So I think the voting was skewed.

Parkersburg is not the unified small town that ESPN presented to the nation last week. It is a small town, but it's far from unified. 1) No one cares about Parkersburg Catholic except the few families that have kids that go there. I'm Catholic, and I don't care at all about the school. (I don't care about Parkersburg schools in general, but we'll get to that.) The churches and the priests in the area don't care about the school! I know ESPN said that it's all 'home-grown' talent, but Catholic recruits. The area they recruit from is still fairly local (or regional if you will), but they recruit.

2) As for the other two schools, I'm absolutely sick of Parkersburg/Parkersburg South. I'm a South '03 grad, and I couldn't be less proud. There's no honor in this town between the two schools. People from the north side of the Little Kanawha River (those'd be the PHS people) don't generally associate with people from the south side of town. Not that there's open warfare in the streets or anything, but people generally stick to their respective sides--in all things they do. People don't go out to eat on the wrong side of the river, people don't do business on the wrong side of the river. It's really ridiculous. I work for the Department of the Treasury in downtown Parkersburg, and there are people who work here that ask people on their first days which side of the river they hail from. If they answer incorrectly, some people will not talk to them! There's never any congratulations when the other side wins anything, which I think is despicable. I'm always a fan of rivalries. Some of 'my teams' are involved in some of the better known ones: Browns/Steelers and WVU/Pitt. Pitt robbed us of a chance for the national title last year in football, and beat us, heartbreakingly, in basketball a couple of times last year, but I don't hate people from Pittsburgh for it. Hell, I cheered for PHS a couple of years ago when they were making a run at the state title in football. Uh oh. Shame on me. I guess that makes me a bad Patriot.

I can understand being a diehard fan for your high school team if you've lived in the same town all your life, especially here in Parkersburg where the nearest big cities are Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Cincinnati (which are all 2.5 - 3.5 hours away). But people let it polarize them so badly in this town that I don't care in the least about South or PHS anymore. I'm sick of it, really. It's so divided, the town wouldn't deserve the moniker had it won.

[Cujo]

Green Bay is Titletown because that's what its nickname is. It's like trying to name The Big Apple, The Windy City, the Cradle of Civilization, or the Red Planet. No. That's New York, Chicago, Babylonia, and Mars.

I wouldn't mind if the mokiner of "Hockeytown" were given to a more deserving city -- preferably one in Canada where the game still thrives.

Sorry Detroit.

[The_Admiral]

Well, that's only a fairly recent marketing slogan, right? They've been calling Green Bay "Titletown" for years and years now, if I'm not mistaken.

[charger77]

Green Bay is Titletown because that's what its nickname is. It's like trying to name The Big Apple, The Windy City, the Cradle of Civilization, or the Red Planet. No. That's New York, Chicago, Babylonia, and Mars.

I wouldn't mind if the mokiner of "Hockeytown" were given to a more deserving city -- preferably one in Canada where the game still thrives.

Sorry Detroit.

I'd agree to that as well. Detroit gave themselves that title. They have had a hard time selling out games for a championship team. If you were in Michigan this summer you wouldnt even know that the champs play here. I rarely if ever see '08 Cup hats or t-shirts and those annoying car flags seem to be a thing of the past. Now that the bandwaggoners have lost interest there do not seem to be as many hard core fans as we once thought they were.

-Dan

[DDR]

It's fine. I've overturned ESPN's ruling. Titletown is still GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN. Home of Ken Kennedy, dontcha know?

[TFoA]

I personally found it funny/sad/interesting how the voting went down in this contest. I really love how Boston fans were the only 'big city' fans to really care enough about this contest to go on ESPN.com and vote multiple times. That's the only way that small towns like Valdosta and Parkersburg got to the top. My mom told me she voted 25 times for Parkersburg, and my sister did the same. Then, the next day (this past Sunday maybe?) Mom went on ESPN.com again to do the same, but found that ESPN had blocked multiple votes from any one IP address. So I think the voting was skewed.

So this was decided by fan voting?

Well damn, why is everybody mad at ESPN? THEY didn't declare Valdosta titletown, the fans did it.

[nyk]

I personally found it funny/sad/interesting how the voting went down in this contest. I really love how Boston fans were the only 'big city' fans to really care enough about this contest to go on ESPN.com and vote multiple times. That's the only way that small towns like Valdosta and Parkersburg got to the top. My mom told me she voted 25 times for Parkersburg, and my sister did the same. Then, the next day (this past Sunday maybe?) Mom went on ESPN.com again to do the same, but found that ESPN had blocked multiple votes from any one IP address. So I think the voting was skewed.

So this was decided by fan voting?

Well damn, why is everybody mad at ESPN? THEY didn't declare Valdosta titletown, the fans did it.

No, probably the town of Valdosta did

[sc49erfan15]

I guarantee half the people claiming to be mad about this didn't even vote.

Shut up and get over it.

[Jigga]

I guarantee half the people claiming to be mad about this didn't even vote.

Shut up and get over it.

Word.

[TFoA]

[illwauk]

Explain to me how Green Bay is Titletown USA. I'm well aware of the 12 Championships. However, they have won only 3 Super Bowls (which trails the Cowboys, Steelers, 49ers, and Raiders).

In other words... any championship won before the current playoff format doesn't count

Besides, this whole thing is ridiculous. Not only is no one outside of Georgia is even gonna remember this a year from now, but it's completely moronic and self-indulgent for ESPN to think they have the authority to say anywhere but Green Bay is Titletown.

While we're at it... let's have a contest to see where is the real Bean Town/Windy City/City of Brotherly Love/etc.

Hell... since they're stealing identities from Wisconsin, why not try to find the "real" Brew City since Milwaukee is losing Miller?

[goalieboy82]

its New York City since that town has currently 28 World Series in that town (not including the Dodgers or Giants), 8 Stanley Cups, 4 Super Bowls, 2 NBA (plus 2 aba), and some College Basketball championships. also why not do a poll on what world city is the best when it comes to sports. if that is the case, lets go with Melbourne Australia or London England.

[gueman]

Way to go Valdosta!

I have a little story that involves me in Valdosta I'd tell if there weren't young folks here....

Does it involve banjos and a river rafting trip that goes bad?

[goalieboy82]

Way to go Valdosta!

I have a little story that involves me in Valdosta I'd tell if there weren't young folks here....

Does it involve banjos and a river rafting trip that goes bad?

hope this didnt happen

[HedleyLamarr]

Way to go Valdosta!

I have a little story that involves me in Valdosta I'd tell if there weren't young folks here....

Does it involve banjos and a river rafting trip that goes bad?

I have gone kayaking down the exact river they shot Deliverance from.....

My story involves chivalry that turns into an offering of sex from the town hooker, in which I had no idea who she was.....