#8: LBSU Vs. LBCC

A few commenters pointed out what we’ve noticed over the last several months—Long Beach’s sports community is passionate, but disparate.  One way to start lacing that community together is to create some events that will help introduce different fan bases to one another.  We think it would be great for the city’s fans to get to attend a Long Beach Classic series, featuring the school’s two colleges, LBCC and Long Beach State.

Now yes, it would be safe to assume that the D-1 LBSU would have the advantage over LBCC, which can’t even have scholarshipped athletes, legally.  So we’re not necessarily talking about official events here—but how cool would it be to have a pickup soccer game at George Allen, or slosh ball at Blair?  These could be fun, fan-interactive events a la MTV’s Rock n’ Jock series, with the attendance proceeds going to a charity of the schools’ choosing, or to their respective foundations.  We could hold a series of five throughout the year, and the team who won the majority could win the official Long Beach Cup (if the schools put it together, we’re happy to provide the trophy!).

The best would be a flag football game between the LBCC Vikings, and a collection of LBSU athletes from all the school’s sports.  By the way, if you think this kind of fundraising series is science fiction, here’s a nugget of wisdom: the first official game played at Blair, way back in 1958, pitted the two schools against each other.