News & Announcements
The Rivalry Featured on ESPNU.COM
July 26, 2007
The storied Calvin-Hope men's basketball rivalry has again been featured by ESPN. This time the college section of the ESPN web site ESPNU.Com has put together a feature story on the rivalry.
The story is part of a series of collegiate sports rivalry sports by the web site with the Williams-Amherst football rivalry and Maine-New Hampshire ice hockey rivalry also recently featured.
Just two years ago, ESPN ranked the Calvin-Hope men's basketball rivalry as the fourth greatest college basketball rivalry, listed after Division I battles such as Duke-North Carolina (#1); Connecticut-Tennessee women (#2); and Louisville-Kentucky (#3). The sports channel filmed a segment of their "Greatest Rivalries" feature at the February, 2005 Calvin-Hope game.
The Calvin-Hope men's basketball rivalry spans more than 80 years and sees the rivalry now tied 83-83. This past year, the two teams met five times with Hope winning three of the five meetings. Both of Calvin's victories came at Hope's DeVos Fieldhouse. In fact, Calvin's 77-71 win at Hope on February 7, was the first victory by a visiting opponent over the Hope men's basketball team at the two-year old facility.
The two rivals are scheduled to meet during the upcoming 2007-08 season on January 26 at Calvin and on February 20 at Hope.
Calvin-Hope Game Goes National with CSTV
January 13, 2007
WGVU TV 35 & TV 52
For the second time in the history of the rivalry, the January 13 Calvin-Hope game will be carried live coast to coast with a broadcast by CSTV: College Sports Television.
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The live national broadcast is an extension of the relationship between Hope, Calvin and Grand Rapids PBS affiliate WGVU-TV. In past years, the schools have worked with WGVU to provide an analog satellite signal of the game for organized remote viewing parties sponsored by Calvin and Hope alumni. The gatherings have drawn over 2,800 alumni nationwide from the two schools.
Again, this year we have CSTV which allows opportunities for fans across the country to expand even further since CSTV, the nation's number-one destination for college sports, is easily accessible on cable systems around the country and on satellite via Dish Network (Channel 152), DirecTV (Channel 610), and CSTV pay-per-view.
"WGVU has been a great partner for us for many years now," says Tom Renner, the public relations director for Hope College. "We have been thrilled with their commitment to what we consider the best rivalry in Division III basketball."
Calvin director of alumni relations Mike VanDenend says the combination of WGVU and CSTV will be a good one for fans of the two colleges.
"We have been looking for ways to make the game more available to alumni around the country," says VanDenend. "Analog satellite is disappearing and we knew we needed to find another direction to go. We found the perfect fit with CSTV, which will take this coast-to-coast alumni experience to a new level."
CSTV personnel are equally enthused about the nation's best small-college basketball rivalry.
"Our partnership will provide an easily accessible national outlet for Calvin-Hope alumni and sports fans across the country to watch this great match-up," says Tim Pernetti, SVP of Programming and Talent, CSTV Networks. "This game is more than an annual rivalry and exemplifies the passion, pageantry and intense competition that drive millions of sports fans to CSTV on a daily basis."
The Calvin-Hope game has gained national attention in recent years and was recently ranked one of the country’s best rivalries behind Duke/North Carolina, Connecticut/Tennessee (women's) and Louisville/Kentucky.
The first game between the two schools was played during the 1920-21 season. The rivalry is so big it once preempted a president's state of the union address. Another time the game drew 11,442 people to downtown Grand Rapids at VanAndel Arena and established an NCAA Division III single game attendance record that is not likely to be broken.
Geographic proximity adds to the rivalry as the two colleges are located just 35 miles apart in west Michigan (Hope in Holland on the Lake Michigan shoreline and Calvin 35 miles to the east in Grand Rapids). They also share a common religious heritage with Calvin's denomination splitting off from Hope's denomination in the late 1800s.
Watch the TV Commericals
