Indiana Town Divided by the Super Bowl
Feb. 3, 2007 — -- Driving down Interstate Highway 65 over the frozen tundra that is Indiana this time of year, you will eventually see an exit off on the right that announces the approach to Remington, Ind.
Remington is a small town sitting comfortably on both sides of a railroad track. Quiet at high noon, it's silence broken only by the crunch of footfalls on the snowy sidewalks and the occasional car. The streets could use a good plowing. It is a tranquil day in February, just as it is for numerous small towns across the Midwest as winter downshifts toward temperatures suitable for hibernation.
But there is something different about Remington, something that sets it apart from other nearby burgs such as Fowler or Wolcott.
On the 180-mile trek from Chicago south to Indianapolis, Remington is smack in the middle. And with Super Bowl Sunday awaiting, that has created a division along Division Street here.
"I'm for the Colts," says Dawn Clark as she bags groceries at the local IGA food store. "I love [Colts quarterback] Peyton Manning."
"I love the Bears," shouts Harry Schweir, sipping a beer a few blocks away at the American Legion hall. OK, he wasn't exactly sipping.
"I was born and raised a Bears fan," he shouts again.
And so it goes. In Remington, you can find Bears pennants snapping from porches right next door to homes with "Go Colts" signs in their windows. Some even have both.
John Lanning is a "Go Colts," "Go Bears" kind of guy. He figures that way he is bound not to be disappointed on game day.
"I hope the best team wins," he tells ABC News.
Not everyone is as ambivalent, though. And it has to do with a football generation gap in town.
"I find that the Bears-Colts thing is kind of split a little bit along age," says Mike Scott at the IGA. "The older people in town still tend to be Bears fans, whereas the younger people are more Colts fans."
Here's why: Until the mid 1970s, the Bears would hold their summer training camp at Rensselaer's St. Joseph's College of Indiana. It's just a short drive from Remington, and old-timers remember well the days when they would regularly make the drive north to see the Monsters of the Midway practice.
The Colts, on the other hand, arrived in Indianapolis -- amid controversy -- back in 1985. They were once the Baltimore Colts, but their owner at the time, Robert Irsay, bundled the team off to Indiana without notice one night -- infuriating Baltimore but enrapturing Indianapolis. Young Colts fans know little about their team's Hoosier heist.
"They're all young people," says Harry Schweir dismissively. "They don't know too much."
Larry Graf, who tends bar at the Legion hall, whispers that he favors the Colts. But he is most happy about the debate in town.
"We're sitting right in the middle of it," he says. "I mean, it's great for business."
Indeed, whoever sells team pennants, flags and hats is doing quite well, thank you very much.
Improvised signs are all over, too. One urges motorists to honk once for the Bears, or twice for the Colts. Approach other signs one way and they read "Go Bears." Pass them by and in your rearview mirror, you'll see "Go Colts."
Fans of both teams had high hopes at the start of the season, but if you press them, few here thought their favorites would wind up facing one another in the ultimate game.
Harry Schweir takes another swig from his mug. There will be no hard feelings after Sunday, he assures. Though if the Colts win, "I won't talk to their fans for a while."