West Virginia...Southern or Northern? (Wheeling, Summersville: transplants, jobs, house)

[Colby "The Punk" Wells]

Originally Posted by appalachiangirl

What about the Charleston area? Which sports teams do they root for? I know the northern panhandle and the Morgantown through Weston areas definitely route for the Pittsburgh teams (my father was a devout Steeler and Pirate fan!) It seems like no matter where former Steeler fans move,they stay loyal to that team. On a family trip to Florida we met a family living in Arizona who were visiting Florida,but were formerly from Butler,Pa(long sentence) and were strong Steeler and Pirate fans. I wonder if this is common to the Pa/northernWV natives or in other areas as well. I did live in Md (Frederick) but didn't notice that strong team loyalty I see here.

Not 100% sure, but it always seems like the Charleston-Huntington media always talk about the Reds and Bengals first, then the Steelers and Pirates. In Southern WV, I heard there were a lot of Atlanta Braves fans. There's even a radio station in Logan (WVOW), which is a Braves affiliate.


I found this interesting sports census site while Googleing, CommonCensus Sports Map Project. Thought you might enjoy it.

[Colby "The Punk" Wells]

Originally Posted by tbailey1138

There actually is a FSN Cincinnati and we get both here in Huntington, although the majority of the baseball fans in the area root for the Reds. Not sure about Marlinton, but Huntington is still Reds and Bengals territory. The Reds caravan still makes a yearly stop here at the mall to sign autographs and meet the fans.

I wish I had FSN Cincinnati. Rather have that than Pittsburgh. On Comcast in Huntington, I heard there was another sports channel called CSS, Comcast Sports Southeast. Is that true?

[appalachiangirl]

Thank you for posting the map. My Uncle lives in Charleston and he is a Steeler fan,but he lived in northern WV for several years,so maybe that explains it.

[tbailey1138]

Yeah we have CSS through Comcast here in Huntington. It seems to show a lot of the stuff that you don't get on other channels like lower profile games and they were even showing spring games for Georgia, Ole Miss, etc. which I thought was kind of neat.

[David Kennedy]

Appliachiangirl: I believe the loyalty to the Pittsburgh teams was brought about by the respect for the Rooneys and the other long time owners...the fact that they stuck with them when they were losing teams...and the fan base (thousands of steelworkers and miners of ethnic variations) just felt included into the family...when the song came out(We are Family) and the Steelers were winning everything...it cemented it all for another generation..
'We are family...and Wv was included...

one of the greatest bonding experiences I ever had was taking a'whiz during the Broncho's semi-final game with about 300 steel workers in the loo...at 12 abreast...like a typewriter carriage..taking a 'whiz and moving out to the right as another horde of fans came in behind us...
The emotion was fabulous...everyone was a Pittsburgher, even us, for that moment...

[eaduke]

A lot of folks in the South also were Washington Redskins fans. Especially Virginia and North Carolina and even though the Carolina Panthers are in Charlotte the Redskins radio network still has stations in parts of N.C. The Redskins are usually on TV in the Charleston market also.

[Colby "The Punk" Wells]

Originally Posted by eaduke

A lot of folks in the South also were Washington Redskins fans. Especially Virginia and North Carolina and even though the Carolina Panthers are in Charlotte the Redskins radio network still has stations in parts of N.C. The Redskins are usually on TV in the Charleston market also.

Yeah, that is true. During football season, I usually see Redskins games on Fox 11, here in the Charleston area. I remember reading somewhere, it may have been Wikipedia, that said the Washington Redskins were known as "The Team Of The South" at one time.

[snorpus]

Well, think back a few decades. Until the NFL expanded and the AFL came along, I don't think there were any teams south of Washington. Charlotte, Atlanta, Jax, Tampa, Miami, Tennessee, even Dallas are all either expansion teams, or were part of the old AFL. So the Redskins pretty much had the whole South to itself.

[r0dpe2c]

First of all, people should stop chopping states up into different regions of the country i.e., Norhern Virginia vs the rest of Virginia, Northern Kentucky vs the rest of Kentucky, South Florida vs North Florida, Southern Illinois vs the rest of Illinois.

Your WHOLE STATE belongs to one region!

Of course Northern West Virginia has different influences from its neighboring state i.e. Ohio (Midwest) and Pennsylvania (East), but as someone mentioned before, Southeast OH and Western PA have southern (that's right) southern influences from West Virginia.

Personally, I think the whole MID-ATLANTIC Region describes geography and not culture (Mid Atlantic States: NewJersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Deleware and West Virginia) (Sometimes Virginia is thrown in there but we all know that's a southern state)

Do you honestly think someone from New Jersey identifies with someone from Maryland let alone West Virginia or visa versa?

There has to be a start and an end to everything i.e. southern culture to northern culture, and the closer the two merge, of course there is going to be similarities between the two regions. A culture does not know state lines.

The question is really this: Culturally does the state of West Virginia, as a whole, fit more with northern states or southern states?

Quiz: Forget bordering states to West Virginia. Is West Virginia more like North Carolina or Michigan in the overall culture of the state? I say North Carolina.

Is West Virginia, Virginia (the state you came from), Kentucky the deep South .... OF COURSE NOT... but if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck .....you get the idea

[ArizonaBear]

Originally Posted by r0dpe2c

First of all, people should stop chopping states up into different regions of the country i.e., Norhern Virginia vs the rest of Virginia, Northern Kentucky vs the rest of Kentucky, South Florida vs North Florida, Southern Illinois vs the rest of Illinois.

Your WHOLE STATE belongs to one region!

Of course Northern West Virginia has different influences from its neighboring state i.e. Ohio (Midwest) and Pennsylvania (East), but as someone mentioned before, Southeast OH and Western PA have southern (that's right) southern influences from West Virginia.

Personally, I think the whole MID-ATLANTIC Region describes geography and not culture (Mid Atlantic States: NewJersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Deleware and West Virginia) (Sometimes Virginia is thrown in there but we all know that's a southern state)

Do you honestly think someone from New Jersey identifies with someone from Maryland let alone West Virginia or visa versa?

There has to be a start and an end to everything i.e. southern culture to northern culture, and the closer the two merge, of course there is going to be similarities between the two regions. A culture does not know state lines.

The question is really this: Culturally does the state of West Virginia, as a whole, fit more with northern states or southern states?

Quiz: Forget bordering states to West Virginia. Is West Virginia more like North Carolina or Michigan in the overall culture of the state? I say North Carolina.

Is West Virginia, Virginia (the state you came from), Kentucky the deep South .... OF COURSE NOT... but if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck .....you get the idea

I disagree there:

If going by geographic borders I would tend to agree with your thoughts.

Now; if describing state lines that traverse similar geo areas.......i.e. southern Va. and northern NC.......I suspect the local cultures would be more similar to each other than to either the Outer Banks (NC) or NoVa (Va)