The world was a different place the last time Virginia beat Virginia Tech in football.
That was in 2003.
The president was George W. Bush.
The iPhone was still more than three years away.
NBC was still making “Friends” episodes.
The top movie in the country was “The Cat in the Hat.”
Facebook, Twitter and YouTube didn’t exist.
We could go on, but you get the idea.
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That’s why Virginia’s 39-27 upset of its rival Friday was such a big deal — not just for the players, but for the fans who've put so much emotion into a rivalry that spans generations, as most great rivalries do.
Not only does Friday's win send Virginia to its first ACC Championship Game, it ended an era of 15 straight losses for the Cavaliers and 15 straight years of trolling for the Hokies. Pick your cliche: The shoe's on the other foot. The tables have turned. A taste of their own medicine. They're all true, at least for one day of one year, and they all carry real emotions.
BALL GAME!
— ESPN (@espn) November 29, 2019
Virginia snaps a 15-game losing streak to Virginia Tech to advance to its first ACC Championship Game! pic.twitter.com/oFRoQZMSPB
Friday's game is one of those moments that will no doubt be used to mark time in the minds of folks in Charlottesville: Before The Win vs. After The Win.
For some young fans, this was the first such win of their lifetimes. For older fans, who were single and/or childless in 2003, it was a moment to share with their Cavalier-obsessed children. But these moments are often more than just a big win.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re a fan of Virginia or Virginia Tech. It doesn’t even matter whether you watched the game. You can still appreciate what happened and what it meant to hundreds of thousands of people around the country. Though these moments are not supposed to be universal in their appeal, the euphoria they provide is relatable across ages, fan bases, even across sports themselves.
We root for laundry, yes, but we also root for the joy and sense of community that these events inspire, the minutes and hours of togetherness we share with our friends and our families when nothing else seems to matter. We know that’s not true, of course. But for those fleeting ticks of our life clocks, everything seems right — as we root with the hope of new memories that will carry us until something else is able to top them.
Today, that feeling belongs to Virginia and its fans.
