Richmond and Charlottesville VA USA

Our good friends Bill and Lydia Strickland offered us a welcome break from boatyard chores with a trip to Charlottesville to watch the (American) football team of University of Virginia (UVA, ‘The Wahoos or The Hoos’) play the Old Dominions and we jumped at the opportunity gladly.  We made a prompt start from Deltaville on the morning of Saturday 21 September for the hour or so’s drive up to Richmond where Bill and Lydia have an apartment.  Here we regrouped, organised a cooler of ice and drinks and stopped for a bite to eat at a local café.  Then it was back in the car for the next hour’s drive to Charlottesville, where Bill and Lydia planned to show us the UVA grounds, before heading on to the stadium for the match.

The Rotunda.  Now more meeting/lecture space, when the university first opened its doors the Rotunda was the library of Jefferson’s ‘academical village’

UVA was founded by Thomas Jefferson in the early nineteenth century.  Building began in 1817, the university was chartered in 1819 and student classes began in 1825.  Jefferson’s aim was to set up a university where students could specialise in a relatively wide range of fields (most universities of the day taught just medicine, law and religion) and where education was completely separated from religion.  To that end, one of the largest construction projects in North America up to that time, the new Grounds were centred upon a library (then housed in the Rotunda) rather than a church.

Views of the Grounds.  Left: the Rotunda at the northeast end of the Lawn.  Right:  Old Cabell Hall at the other end of the Lawn

At the time of the university’s founding, all the students and their tutors lived in rooms on either side of the Lawn, with the library (the Rotunda) in easy reach.  Nowadays UVA boasts about 22,000 students who are housed throughout the city.  However, the rooms around the Lawn are still much sought after despite having no air conditioning, no central heating (though they all have an open fireplace) and no convenient ablutions (it’s a 2-3min walk, often down a pavement adjacent to a public road, to a similarly aged university building now updated to incorporate bathrooms and toilets).  Though a year’s accommodation in one of these rooms might appear to be a punishment, they are actually allocated as a prize to those students who achieve the best academic standards in their year group.

One of the rooms is that where Edgar Allen Poe spent a term before leaving the university with financial difficulties (though it is frequently not highlighted that these difficulties where not aided by his gambling).  Poe’s room is dressed as it was in his time and is maintained by UVA’s Raven Society and there’s a short audio commentary about his time at the university, which is activated by pressing a button next to the (glass) door. Having spent a year in a room overlooking the High Street in Oxford, listening to the tour buses going past with their incessant commentary about the university and the colleges close by, Nicky said that she pitied the students accommodated in the rooms on either side of Poe’s.

The President’s House (if I remember correctly!)

All in orange – Hoos supporters enjoy their pre-match tailgate party

After an hour or so wandering the historic Grounds in the heat, followed by a restorative beer or 2 in a student pub, we hightailed it to the football stadium in good time to have a ‘proper’ tailgate party before the match.  The last time we had been to a UVA match the heavens had opened in the couple of hours before the match and we had had to hunker in the car eating our picnic, just as if we were in a tailback on the M25.  This time, however, we were able to enjoy a real feast, upright and in the open air, accompanied by that most non-standard of drinks at such an event – a good G&T!

Pre-match warm-up parade by the band

And then into the stadium; and what a contrast to the last time!  It was light, dry and sooooo warm [Ed: note to self, no need for warm jackets and trousers in September!].

Bottom left:  Fireworks to celebrate a home team touchdown.  Right: Bring on the support staff!

The band marched and played and failed to churn up the pitch.  The cavalier on his horse wasn’t a drowned rat and the cheerleaders all looked warm and genuinely happy to be there.

Come on you Hoos!

And the match?  Well, it wasn’t the Hoos’ finest hour.  In fact, at half time they were 17-0 down.  But they came back to win 28-17 so they proved they can pull it out of the bag when they need to.  Now let’s see if they can emulate last year’s men’s basketball team……..

Richmond and Charlottesville, Virginia, USA