The Crosstown Shootout was nearly three months ago, and while that game may feel a long way away, the rivalry has continued off the court with the Crosstown tip-off challenge.
It's been well-documented recently how fans of Xavier University and the University of Cincinnati have gone back and forth leaving generous donations throughout the local service industry to help support businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, weaponizing the rivalry for good in a way it never has been before.
Now, a couple of former Xavier basketball players have gotten involved.
Dwayne Wilson and Michael Davenport were teammates at Xavier in the late eighties. Both were a part of Xavier's first-ever Sweet 16 team.
Wilson, who played for the Musketeers from 1988-93, just had his 25th anniversary as a Cincinnati Police officer. Davenport, who's now in the manufacturing business, was at Xavier from 1987-91.
They saw the news stories about the tip-off challenge and the social media posts, and they decided to get involved, but they took a slightly different approach.
"You look at the list of all the businesses that have been helped and people have given tips to and none of them are minority businesses," said Wilson. "And you know, I kind of looked at it from both sides. People are going to tip where they typically hang out, typically go to, but in this situation, with COVID-19 everybody's being hit the same way, and some places are probably being hit harder than others. So, I think to be a good, worldly neighbor I think we need to look at minority-owned businesses or businesses owned by people of color and kind of try to help those businesses as well."
Wilson and Davenport are part of a group that pooled together tips for minority-owned businesses in the area. According to Wilson, they spread the word on Facebook and he was impressed by the response.
On Saturday, a few hours before the Musketeers beat Creighton, Wilson and Davenport went with a group that was involved in the fundraising to five establishments – BlaCk Coffee (Ninth and Elm), Ollie's Trolley (West Liberty near Central Parkway), Burnett's Soul Food (East McMillan Street), Just Q'in BBQ (East McMillan Street) and Higher Gravity (Hamilton Avenue) – where they left identical tips of $1,018.31, a nod to 1831, the year Xavier was founded.
Wilson said he'd previously left that same amount at Cream + Sugar Coffeehouse (Montgomery Road) and Esoteric Brewing (East McMillan Street), which amounts to a current total of $7,128.17.
Six of the seven businesses they've already donated to are minority-owned, said Wilson.
"We eat at the places we eat at and that's probably top of mind and that's why diversity is good," said Davenport. "Having diversity in your friend set, the groups that you're involved in it tends to bring to light some issues that may be overlooked.
"... I knew a guy at one of the companies I worked in and he always talked about ... they don't care how much you know until they know how much you care, so I think, in this case, it was one of those things relationships are the be-all and end-all. The Pink Ribbon campaign is just that until you know someone with cancer. The war is just something on TV until you know someone who's deployed. We were built and we were designed by our creator to be a community and when we are a community my brother's issues become mine and my sister's issues become mine as well."
A large part of the money raised by Wilson and Davenport came from Dana Gardens, a bar and restaurant not far from Xavier's campus.
A few weeks ago, a secondary challenge took place on Twitter between the followers of Bearcat Journal, a UC site run by Chad Brendel, and Musketeer Report, an XU site run by Rick Broering.
The competition was simple. Which fan base can bring in the most donations through Venmo and Paypal? Donations from Musketeer Report would support Dana Gardens and donations from Bearcat Journal would support the Holy Grail and Clifton Mio's.
In a matter of days, the UC total came out to $19,091 and it ended up supporting 12 local businesses, said Brendel, who live-streamed leaving the tips on Twitter.
The XU total was $14,200. Dana Gardens took $7,000 for its staff, then gave $3,600 to Stone Lanes, a bowling alley near Xavier's campus, and gave the other $3,600 to Wilson and Davenport's group.
BJ Hayley, co-owner of Dana Gardens, said it was an easy decision to spread the money around to the community.
"Even before this tip challenge, when the pandemic first hit, everybody was coming in and buying gift certificates or leaving extra tips," said Hayley. "It's paying it forward now that business is back doing better again ... it's amazing the generosity."
As Wilson and Davenport spoke they each kept coming back to the importance of community.
"When you start something like this you never know what it's going to grow to especially when you start talking about race," said Wilson. "You never know how people are going to take it but I think we were pretty open and candid about what we wanted to do on the Facebook page, about what businesses we wanted to support.
"It feels good, but it's just being a good global citizen and helping people that may be overlooked in certain instances."
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