Back in 2000, when Bridgeport High School beat Wayne 14-6 in the Class AA state championship game the show Survivor was at the top of the television ratings. They ended each episode by kicking someone off the “Island” and concluding by saying “The Tribe has Spoken.”

 

Because I like to think I’m clever, when I wrote my story following that game, my lead was something to the tune of “The Tribe spoke Friday night. And Wayne was kicked off the Island.” The Tribe, of course, being Bridgeport High School and the island in question was Wheeling Island Stadium.

 

Flash forward a dozen years, Connect-Bridgeport is still very much in its infancy stages. Jason Young, a 2001 Bridgeport graduate that happened to be at that game in Wheeling, gives me a phone call and wants to meet at our office at the Benedum Civic Center. Young said he wanted to pitch an idea for the Web site – and a free one at that. Considering I love free things, I set the meeting up.

 

Young, as it turned out, had gotten with fellow BHS grad Luke Nesler who is a video expert, and came up with an idea to get everyone excited for the upcoming 2012 Indians football season. The concept was a short video that was called “Roll Tribe” that has helped create a catch phrase that has been – in very large and healthy portions – a fun rallying cry for all athletic and academic programs in the community. Before I get to where I’m going with this, it’s only fair to see from where the idea was hatched and the word Tribe became front and center in the city.

 

“I saw the phrase (Roll Tribe) on Twitter and it was used as a hash tag as a way of commenting on a big baseball victory by the baseball team back in, I believe, April of 2012. I thought it was creative and then, probably the same day, I saw the ‘Roll Tide’ commercial on ESPN,” said Young. “I knew the slogan was playing off that.”

 

For those who have never witnessed the ESPN “Roll Tide” commercial, it basically shows how life in a small town can revolve around sports, in this case the Alabama football team. At the end, the video says “it’s not crazy, it’s sports.”

 

Young and Nesler’s idea was simple. Take the same concept and change it to “Roll Tribe” video. Myself and others believe the phrase “Roll Tribe” was likely used before in Bridgeport and I’m almost certain it’s been used by other schools as well at the high school and college level. That’s okay. Young, Nesler or Connect-Bridgeport never claimed to have been responsible for the phrase or the concept for the video they were about to put together.

 

In fact, it was presented as a spoof. It was presented as a parody. On Nesler’s YouTube channel it headlines itself as “ESPN Spoof.” Despite that, for the last two years, there’s the occasional comment about legal action from ESPN for “stealing their idea” or from Alabama for infringing on the Roll Tide statement. It should be noted that many of the “This is Sports Center” commercials are, themselves, parodies of other commercials.

 

That’s not illegal. If it were, Saturday Night Live wouldn’t exist. Great movies like Airplane and Spaceballs would have never made it to the big screen. Grandma’s House in Nutter Fort – and I love me some Grandma commercials – did parodies of other commercials for years.

 

So Nesler and Young, along with Ben Queen, spent three days putting together a video that was viewed by thousands. It was shown before games and it was seen on t-shirts, bumper stickers and even license plates.

 

“We created a parody and presented it as such and almost exclusively the entire Bridgeport community liked it. It worked because the Roll Tide message mirrored the Roll Tribe message about how things center around the high school in Bridgeport whether it’s athletics, academics or the arts,” said Young. “Roll Tribe caught on quick and it’s still going strong.”

 

So why am I bringing all of this up?

 

Since my job requires me to monitor social media, there’s been buzz that the word “Tribe” has replaced the Indians. That, of course, has led to the revisiting of the “Roll Tribe” video.

 

The most recent debate has allowed me to witness dozens of Facebook comments that included the stale “legal action should be taken for the Roll Tribe because it was stolen” and the, “Hello? This was already done as Roll Tide.” There were more statements that were trotted out recently that were artfully crafted a few years ago and probably dozens more that I missed that are really a waste of this space and your time.

 

There was no need to respond. You can’t fix that mindset.

 

As for the issue of using Tribe to refer to the Indians, well, it's no more an issue than The Pittsburgh Pirates being referred to by tons of their fans as the Bucs or Buccos. They’re still the Pirates and Young said the Bucs are nothing more than the nickname of a nickname. Heck, when I went to Liberty High School, our students chanted “Here we go Mounties, here we go.” By no means was that an indication that the school logo was being changed to honor the Canadian Royal Mounted Police. Rather, it was a play on the school’s official nickname.

 

That said, Bridgeport will remain the Indians – at least until the ACLU or our government decides otherwise (which is the topic for another day). The colors will remain red and white. Bridgeport has been the Indians in the journalistic form for me since I began covering them in 1987 in various sports. They have been referred to by me and practically every other writer, television sports anchor and radio broadcaster at one time or another as the Tribe. I’m betting that will continue.

 

“When I see this being debated, even at a small level, I just can’t help but think energies could be focused on bigger issues,” Young said.

 

It’s hard to argue Young’s point. This is one argument that is much ado about nothing.