Feeling yellow

I watched with the millions for the outcome of the highly charged championship game between Ateneo and UST yesterday. I’m not an alumnus of either school and neither am I a basketball fan.
But championship games are such major spectacles that they could draw anyone from any indifference.
Plus, in the UAAP, before they turn into men of the pro league to play for money, the boys play for school and pride. This is the real game, much like the way Manny Pacquiao did boxing before he turned it into an enterprise.
There were about 10 of us in the room watching the live coverage of the match. Most were rooting for the Tigers, including myself.
I don’t know why. Maybe because I studied for a year in UST but didn’t finish the course. Maybe because I hear mass often from the Dominican Fathers.
But I also knew a bit of Ateneo. I studied Philosophy for a semester at the Loyola campus and the Jesuit Fathers left an impression on me, having been under their care for six months.
It if was a game between the Eagles and the Archers, I would go for the former, hands down. But this was a game between the Eagles and the Tigers and I would have donned a yellow shirt.
I joked the crowd before the TV set that the reason UST won was they had more prayer warriors than Ateneo. Why, besides the Dominican Fathers, there are countless congregations of nuns carrying the banner of St. Dominic.
By contrast, I don’t think St. Ignatius had a distaff side to count on.
But going back, I guess it’s St. Thomas who draws the line. The high school I attended was a Sto. Tomas and my hometown itself was founded by the Dominicans.
Closer to heart, I think I can identify more with the UST community than that of Ateneo. So that gives me the feeling that I belong even when I'm neither here nor there.