Middle Tennesee State University Athletics
COLUMN: An Ode to Ham Hocks
2/6/2022 3:32:00 PM | Baseball, BRAA
Or how traditions make every place feel like home
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Every so often, I'm reminded that to a lot of folks who don't particularly engage with college athletics, every game that's played can look pretty much the same from the outside perspective, give or take switching out a few colors for the teams that are playing each week.
Sure, it's easy to tell when a school might have more students than another, due to the size of their stadium, or even what part of the country they're from, given what folks might be wearing in the crowd or just the weather outside at that time of year. But on the whole, particularly if it's a game on TV in the background while you're talking to your distant relative at a family reunion or the guy you sat next to in sophomore year biology at the student union, I don't necessarily quibble with their assessment. It is all very similar.
Of course, actually going to the game in question or being on campus during a season can reveal itself to all sorts of traditions. Some of my favorites from this year's basketball season are related to the pep band, with the playing of the William Tell Overture, with a full cheerleader color guard and dance team routine, during a late timeout in the second half, as well as playing the Tennessee Waltz as the game concludes.
But the newest tradition, that is perhaps the most unique one I've experienced at MTSU, was this week's Groundhog Day Luncheon in support of Blue Raider Baseball. And more specifically, the, to quote head coach Jim Toman, "delicious" ham hocks that were served as the main course.
Wikipedia, as of the writing of this column, defines a ham hock as "the joint between the tibia/fibula and the metatarsals of the foot of a pig, where the foot was attached to the hog's leg… the portion of the leg that is neither part of the ham proper nor the ankle or foot (trotter), but rather the extreme shank end of the leg bone."
From what I read, there's a wide variety of uses for ham hocks in dishes from a plethora of different cultures. But in the American South, as we are in Tennessee, it took the form of a very salty, almost gamey sort of ham, where it was at times tricky to ascertain what was muscle, ligament, cartilage, etc. With easily one of the weirdest mouth feels I've had in something I ate.
But while I'm not rushing to get more ham hocks any time soon (neither is Toman, who said at the luncheon that he was heading to KFC afterwards), I did come to appreciate the ham hocks for what they truly were: a way to connect everyone in attendance at this years Groundhog Day Luncheon to the 48 that preceded it.
It's pretty remarkable that folks have been getting together in Murfreesboro for that long to help celebrate the start of a new season, celebrate each other's company, and really celebrate just the community of MTSU and Rutherford County as a whole. And while the venues may change (last year's was virtual, after all), and the players most certainly move on, the ham hocks, the Raiders jacket and that groundhog statue Coach Peterson originally brought out remain the same.
It'll be quite a while until we see our Blue Raiders at home at Reese Smith Jr. Field thanks to the winter we've been having, I can't wait to watch my first season of Blue Raider baseball like so many before me, who started their journey meeting a team with a plate of ham hocks and a bowl of ice cream on a February morning.
Sure, it's easy to tell when a school might have more students than another, due to the size of their stadium, or even what part of the country they're from, given what folks might be wearing in the crowd or just the weather outside at that time of year. But on the whole, particularly if it's a game on TV in the background while you're talking to your distant relative at a family reunion or the guy you sat next to in sophomore year biology at the student union, I don't necessarily quibble with their assessment. It is all very similar.
Of course, actually going to the game in question or being on campus during a season can reveal itself to all sorts of traditions. Some of my favorites from this year's basketball season are related to the pep band, with the playing of the William Tell Overture, with a full cheerleader color guard and dance team routine, during a late timeout in the second half, as well as playing the Tennessee Waltz as the game concludes.
But the newest tradition, that is perhaps the most unique one I've experienced at MTSU, was this week's Groundhog Day Luncheon in support of Blue Raider Baseball. And more specifically, the, to quote head coach Jim Toman, "delicious" ham hocks that were served as the main course.
Wikipedia, as of the writing of this column, defines a ham hock as "the joint between the tibia/fibula and the metatarsals of the foot of a pig, where the foot was attached to the hog's leg… the portion of the leg that is neither part of the ham proper nor the ankle or foot (trotter), but rather the extreme shank end of the leg bone."
From what I read, there's a wide variety of uses for ham hocks in dishes from a plethora of different cultures. But in the American South, as we are in Tennessee, it took the form of a very salty, almost gamey sort of ham, where it was at times tricky to ascertain what was muscle, ligament, cartilage, etc. With easily one of the weirdest mouth feels I've had in something I ate.
But while I'm not rushing to get more ham hocks any time soon (neither is Toman, who said at the luncheon that he was heading to KFC afterwards), I did come to appreciate the ham hocks for what they truly were: a way to connect everyone in attendance at this years Groundhog Day Luncheon to the 48 that preceded it.
It's pretty remarkable that folks have been getting together in Murfreesboro for that long to help celebrate the start of a new season, celebrate each other's company, and really celebrate just the community of MTSU and Rutherford County as a whole. And while the venues may change (last year's was virtual, after all), and the players most certainly move on, the ham hocks, the Raiders jacket and that groundhog statue Coach Peterson originally brought out remain the same.
It'll be quite a while until we see our Blue Raiders at home at Reese Smith Jr. Field thanks to the winter we've been having, I can't wait to watch my first season of Blue Raider baseball like so many before me, who started their journey meeting a team with a plate of ham hocks and a bowl of ice cream on a February morning.
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