Amid all the social media support for the Carleton Ravens football team before the first Panda Game in 15 years, one of Carleton’s most prominent alumni showed his allegiance to the Ravens.
TSN sportscaster James Duthie, a Carleton journalism graduate, sent out a series of joke tweets supporting the Ravens in anticipation for the Panda Game against the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees.
“I have a lot of friends who went to Ottawa U, so I just wanted to get to them . . . it was my way to rib them relentlessly, and also to show Carleton pride,” Duthie said.
Duthie sent tweets joking about how the Panda Game got its name from an event where University of Ottawa students beat up a panda cub and Carleton students heroically nursed it back to health, as well as suggesting a certain Ravens cheer questioning the meaning of a Gee-Gee was voted best football cheer ever by cheer scientists.
“It was actually an Ottawa U student I ran into who reminded me about a week or two ago that [the] Panda Game was coming up, and they were kind of trash talking me a bit,” he said. “So as soon as that happened, I said, ‘Okay, it’s war,’ and I decided to fire off the tweets.”
He said one of the Ravens football players tweeted at him earlier asking to help get #PandaWeek trending, which he said also inspired him to send the tweets.
Duthie said he didn’t really expect a Ravens win yet because of the team’s youth, despite his sarcastic bravado on Twitter, but said he thought Carleton played really well in the loss.
“To come back after 15 years, especially against a good, solid program like Ottawa U, losing by only 25 points is definitely not an embarrassing score,” he said.
Duthie said he was “pumped” when they brought football back to Carleton, and is excited to see where the program goes in a few years.
“I’m a huge football fan, even though hockey is my job, football is probably right there with hockey as my favourite sport,” he said.
Duthie said his love of football almost made him choose not to attend Carleton to study journalism, and also not pursue sportscasting as a result.
“I was going to go to McGill and play football and take Phys. Ed,” he said. “Being a Phys. Ed teacher would’ve been a great job, but I really wanted to do something more.”
Duthie said he thinks he made a “mature decision” to go to Carleton for journalism and not play football in order to pursue a bigger dream of his—to eventually become a sportscaster.
“They told us back then it was really hard to play football and take journalism at the same time,” he said. “I just figured balancing the two would be too hard, so I didn’t play football.”
Duthie said he had a great experience at Carleton, but in retrospect, he regrets not trying out for the football team.
“But let’s face it, I was a 160 pounds, 5-10, defensive back with mediocre speed, so it’s not like I was going anywhere. I don’t think the Ravens missed me too much,” he said.
But Duthie said it is clear he made the right decision by pursuing journalism instead of football.
“[Working at TSN] is like real work sometimes, but for most of the time, I sit around and watch hockey games with a bunch of guys who are incredibly knowledgeable. It’s a pretty sweet gig,” he said with a laugh.
Duthie said he is incredibly fortunate for his success.
“Hopefully skill comes into it, and what you learn at Carleton comes into it, and all that plays into where you make it in life, but we all need breaks and things that come along the way,” he said.
