Nova Nation?

Last Saturday morning, while I was laboring to start a six mile run, two of the three “hanging” TV screens in the gym were showing the same college basketball game. Two sports announcers, seated before the stands, were analyzing what we were about to see, and an obnoxious fan kept flashing a large, rectangle sign he held in his outstretched hands between them.

I found myself darn nearly laughing out loud when I read the words neatly printed on that rectangle poster. “Nova Nation,” it proudly proclaimed. Seeing this started a chain of imperceptibly related thoughts in my mind that made me completely forget my struggle on the treadmill.

I find it hard to imagine “Fan Nations” even though I am proudly a part of “Red Sox Nation.” I can’t recall when I first saw the word “nation” tacked on behind a sports team, but I’m pretty sure it was connected to the Florida Gators – as in “Gator Nation.”

But what started the chain of thought that led to my smile and then chuckle was the word, “Nova” on the fan banner. In this case it signified the fans of Villanova’s fine basketball team.

Nova is the name of a great science show, but I best recall the Nova as a short, "squatty" auto, designed by Chevrolet, that never did look too good unless it was a jacked-up, two-door with over-wide tires on "boss" mag rims. It helped if it was painted a light color and had stripes down the sides to make it appear longer.

I remember all too well when General Motors (GM) decided to export the Chevy Nova across the border to Mexico. It became an immediate joke. You see in Spanish, Nova translated roughly to “No Go.” The story of GMs failure was told over and over by consultants and business reformers. It was an example of American ineptness in foreign markets juxtaposed against the clever success the Japanese were having in the US.

If you were thinking about entering a foreign market in the 1980s and 90s, then you were urged to be smarter than the boys and girls at GM who didn’t even take the time to check something as simple as name translation.

So, I broke into a smile, then a chuckle, and just sailed on for a satisfying and almost effortless six and a half miles. You see, the chain of thought ended when it then dawned on me that these days we really are a “Nova Nation.” And how fitting that once again, GM plays such a prominent part!