Show spirit, donate blood

IU and Purdue are out for blood. \nWhen a Purdue student rose to speak at a question and answer session with filmmaker Kevin Smith in late October, the crowd was united -- in a chorus of boos.\nWhen Gene Keady steps onto Assembly Hall, Hoosier fans turn away -- partly from the shine of his head, partly by the disdain for the colors he wears.\nPurdue is our rival.\nBut sadly, we seldom get to bask in victory. Hoosier athletes have too often fallen prey to Boilmaker athletics, its oversized mascot and its black and gold band.\nNo current IU football player has ever beaten Purdue. \nThey have beaten our pride for quite some time. It's time to fight back. It's time to lay our blood on the line -- literally.\nFor the fifth time, IU and Purdue are in a fight for life, donating blood to help the Indiana Blood Center.\nAlthough both universities are competing to win, the main goal of this competition isn't a trophy or bragging rights, but to help out the region and central Indiana.\nBut we're Hoosiers. And we want to win.\nThe football team isn't involved in this contest, but the results haven't been any better. IU has lost the three previous blood drives -- only a victory in the inaugural event has saved some grace.\n"This is an opportune time to do this and to not only do something that's good for people in the state, but to assist the school in a friendly competition with our rivals from West Lafayette and to do something good and meaningful at the same time," said Scott Siegel, who is the director of student programs and the assistant alumni director.\nBut a rivalry takes competition. And Purdue hasn't had that yet.\nIn this year's event, which wraps up Nov. 17, IU is being embarrassed trailing by nearly 600 donations, 915-324.\nOne of the main reasons IU is behind, according to Siegel, is because Purdue has an actual Indiana Blood Center facility in West Lafayette, whereas IU has to assign random locations for the donations.\nBlood has already been donated throughout this month at Read Center and Assembly Hall. The last location to donate blood blood on campus will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 13 in the Indiana Memorial Union Solarium.\nBut there's no excuse for losing this game. We can't blame an ineffective secondary or bad coaching. We can only blame ourselves. \nSo this is your wake-up call. It's the fourth quarter and the Hoosiers are trailing by 14 points. We can still win, but it's going to take some scrambling, some creativity and some of your blood.\nAs Hoosiers, they say we bleed red. It's time we prove it.