Previously: 40 Years in Beer (Book III), Part 92: Pentecostal pews, beer judging exams and Bixology (2001-2003).
I’ve always found solace in tales of heroic struggle against overwhelming odds, even when defeat is inevitable, although one always holds out hope of ultimate redemption owing to the undisputed righteousness of the cause.
The preceding emphatically fails to describe the comic-opera cadence of The Great NABC Vs. Big Red Liquors War of 2003, in which we misbehaved a little, and the response was far out of proportion to the transgression.
Is the war over now? I think so. The conflict probably concluded when I left NABC, but truthfully, I never cared a jot about Big Red Liquors, before or after. I’ve no idea which persons or conglomerates own the chain now, or whether the ownership is local, multinational or intergalactic.
In retrospect, as specifically addressing the Big Red Liquors “festival” on that idiotic April day in Bloomington in 2003, I take responsibility for my own shortcomings as a manager. One of my people took the lead in instigating the kerfuffle (if you know, you know; I won’t mention his name because flattering sociopaths isn’t something I enjoy doing).
I ignored it. Obviously, I shouldn’t have. Just the same, I’ve been thrown out of classier joints, and by a far better grade of bouncer, so I’m sticking to my conclusions at the time.
Undoubtedly, the experience lit a spark. Upon returning home, I quickly devoured Murray Sperber’s seminal Beer and Circus: How Big-Time College Sports Has Crippled Undergraduate Education (2000).
The resulting essay, reprinted here, was shared with the F.O.S.S.I.L.S. homebrewing club, later appearing at my newfangled blogs. For “40 Years in Beer,” I’ve made only one alteration.
I won’t repeat the names of the two inept Big Red functionaries. One died a long time ago, and I wouldn’t recognize the other if he stepped in front of my bicycle. Henceforth, they’re to be known as Abbott and Costello.
Given the many ways our lives in the United States have changed in a quarter-century, it is axiomatic that Sperber’s arguments in Beer and Circus are subject to modification. His depiction of the collegiate milieu seems almost quaint in the context of social media, remote Zoom education, rampant NIL sporting lucre, and the reputedly monastic behavioral personal preferences of today’s university student.
(Animal House was filmed almost fifty years ago. Sperber is still with us at 85, having out-lived both Bob Knight and...Read more
