South attempts to rise again

RENO -- UNR went to Las Vegas last season and ran UNLV off the football field by a 31-3 score, but Wolf Pack athletic director Cary Groth left fuming.

She couldn't believe the treatment by the fans and was especially disappointed in her crowd. Groth fired off an angry letter to 3,500 UNR boosters expressing profound dismay over the many drunken and rude fans.

The in-state, North-South rivalry is more intense for those who live in the Reno area. Attendance for UNR games has dropped off noticeably in recent years, but today's 1 p.m. tiff at Mackay Stadium sold out by noon Friday.

This rivalry goes from beyond the schools to the cities.

Unlike Las Vegas, the Reno-Sparks area is more of a community, filled with those who grew up here. They were raised to love Wolf Pack blue and hate Rebel red.

"There are people here who never left the area," said longtime UNR analyst Bill Daniel, who also lived in Las Vegas for seven years, including four as a UNLV assistant. "Las Vegas is a melting pot."

Which also drives folks from the North crazy. They consider themselves true Nevadans and are put off because so many Las Vegans don't give the rest of the state much thought.

Longtime Reno residents never got over being passed by Las Vegas in the 1960s as the place where celebrities and gamblers flocked. Las Vegas is big-city cool, the subject of countless TV shows and movies. This area is famous for "Reno 911" and the National Bowling Stadium.

"When I would leave Reno and get on a plane and go to Las Vegas, people in Reno would come up with 10 reasons why it wouldn't work," Daniel said. "In Las Vegas, they give you 10 reasons why it would work. That's the difference in the two communities."

But red-state Reno has football, and many locals see their annual chance to beat UNLV as a shot at victory over snobbery and a valley full of outsiders and Democrats.

Chris Ault, in his third stint and 23rd season as UNR's coach, has stoked the rivalry by making UNLV the enemy. The color red is not allowed in the football offices.

"A lot of tradition surrounds this game," Ault said.

So fans will fill Mackay Stadium, and after the game 3,000 will walk to Little Waldorf Saloon -- commonly known as the Little Wal -- across the street.

But there are indications the intensity is waning here.

Toby Tamagni, general manager of the Little Wal, said the students who frequent the restaurant haven't made a big deal about this game.

"I think it's more the alumni because the kids don't seem ornery," he said.

There weren't many signs near the Little Wal or UNR about the rivalry, and UNR student Erik Stoll, 22, said he has heard little talk.

"I came here from Oregon, where we had the Oregon-Oregon State rivalry, and this doesn't compare," Stoll said.

Attendance numbers underscore his point. Nine of the top 10 crowds at Mackay Stadium were in the 1990s -- the exception being the 31,900 for the 2003 game against UNLV.

The Rebels can't boast Michigan-like crowds, either, but the intensity surrounding this rivalry is growing in Las Vegas. UNLV fans often tell coach Mike Sanford the Rebels can lose to anyone but the Wolf Pack.

"I can't stand the mentality that they think this game is more important to them," Sanford said of UNR. "It's really important to us. I think Chris Ault has created that perception."

• NOTE -- Western High School wide receiver Phillip Payne (6 feet 4 inches, 185 pounds) committed to the Rebels. He said he also considered UNR, Utah and Arizona.