Today the Daily wants to congratulate the members of the ISU football team for their win on Saturday. The 44-41 victory in triple overtime — the first overtime incident of the Cy-Hawk football series’ 59-year span — was truly inspiring. Whether you watched it at Jack Trice Stadium itself, listened on the radio, viewed it on TV or merely tailgated all day, chances are good that if you were supporting Iowa State, you became more and more euphoric as the game progressed.

The last year Iowa State won against Iowa was 2007. It was an impressive win, achieved without setting foot in the end zone, but rather kicking an impressive five field goals. This time, our offense was able to finish its drives at the goal line rather than the 15-yard line, as we did in 2007. Between 2007 and 2009, we did not score one touchdown against the Hawkeyes. Saturday, we scored six.

Kicking five field goals is noteworthy, and it delivered us a win. But it just doesn’t feel the same as six well-executed touchdowns. Kicking a football over a crowd of black-and-gold linebackers doesn’t deliver the same effect as scoring six touchdowns by outmaneuvering, outpassing, and outmatching the play their defensive line offered.

Saturday may be gone, but we can take a lesson away from the latest round of competition between the University of Iowa and Iowa State. Our economy may not be growing, unemployment may be stagnant if not increasing, graduates may find it harder to get a job, and voters might be turned off by polarized politics and politicized patriotism.

But if we show up, if we compete with those people that try to get the better of us, if we give the struggle our best effort, we’ll win.

Victory requires action. It is not nobler to suffer the slings of arrows and outrageous fortune in your mind only. The sea of troubles can be ended by taking up arms against them, by opposing them. Plans and ideas must be put into practice to take any effect. We should be bold, choosing to chance a touchdown in triple overtime instead of preferring the safer field goal. 

Iowa State is a university. We learn here. Our campus is where companies and government agencies run experiments with new, bold, determined ideas. Our football team’s boldness and skill can be applied to any of those ideas. With that boldness and skill come success.

We all have a stake in the solution of our world’s problems. Sorting out the economy isn’t something we should leave solely to high financiers and economists. Restoring political honesty shouldn’t be left to political science majors. Use your talents, whatever they are. Harness your energies for something beyond your own gratification — solutions will neither present nor carry out themselves.

Show up on the field, and play the game. And if you go into overtime — keep playing, whether you’ve been there before or not. The struggle is the glory, and the achievement increases with the effort you put in.