There’s an old saying in football, coined by iconic coach and broadcaster John Madden, that goes: If you have two quarterbacks you have none.
Although there have been exceptions, the adage is generally true.
The idea is that if you don’t have a player who is clearly superior at the position, it’s probably an indicator that you don’t have talent there. But even when you have more than one player at the position with talent, playing both often leads to a divided locker room. It undermines confidence and upsets team dynamics. Better to stick with one that risks dissension, the theory goes.
That analogy can extend beyond football.
Saturday, marks the end of the inaugural Historic Home Tours of Columbus. Friday marks the opening of the Pilgrimage Jubilee of Homes, which will be held each weekend through April 23.
Both events trace their roots to the Columbus Pilgrimage, which began in 1940, operated by the Columbus Cultural Heritage Foundation until 2019.
That year, a dispute between the CCHF, which managed and marketed the annual event, and the homeowners, whose properties were its essence, led to homeowners breaking away to form a new organization, The Preservation Society of Columbus.
After a two-year hiatus, the PSC held its first Pilgrimage Jubilee of Homes in 2022, but again disagreements between homeowners sparked yet another split.
This year, there are two events which can be considered heirs of the Columbus Pilgrimage.
Confused yet? We are too, and — we suspect — so are visitors.
We hope that this is a temporary situation. Having two spring historic home tours is like having two quarterbacks. We fear this situation creates confusion, dissension and weakens both efforts.
For years, an annual unified historic home tour allowed organizers to promote and market it as a major tourism event, and it was scheduled in conjunction with other community events.
We recognize that the homeowners in both organizations have a genuine desire to promote tourism and pride in our community. We do not believe that the split that created two separate events was done capriciously. Some real differences of opinion existed and a compromise could not be reached.
But we urge both groups to come back to the table. A few years ago, they were both of a like mind: building a new and better Pilgrimage, one that would appeal to different groups by embracing the cultural and historical roots of our community.
We believe this split runs counter to that original goal.
By next spring, we hope the community-minded homeowners from both groups will make another effort to get on the same team.
P.S. The use of “two” in the headline was intentional.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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