Morgan Hughes kept the screenshots on his phone for whenever the question would be asked.

How did an infamous Biblical sign placed on a farm in middle-of-nowhere Ohio by a Kentucky real-estate developer become appropriated into the rivalry between the Crew and FC Cincinnati?

A game Saturday night at Mapfre Stadium will mark the first meeting between the teams since Cincinnati moved up to Major League Soccer from the United Soccer League, and the first meeting since a U.S. Open Cup classic in 2017. Since then, the name given to the rivalry — based on the giant black sign on I-71 between Cincinnati and Columbus that warns “Hell Is Real” — has taken on a life of its own and has been embraced by both teams.

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The Crew has had so-called rivals before, but they felt forced. First came D.C. United and the Chicago Fire, and more recently games with Toronto FC have been played for the Trillium Cup.

No way in hell were the supporters of Ohio’s two teams going to allow their games to have some corny name.

"All of the best pageantry and all the best traditions come from places that aren't a boardroom in a front office,” Hughes said. “They start organically.”

In May 2016, the drawing for the fourth round of the U.S. Open Cup revealed the Crew would play FC Cincinnati, then in its first year, if Cincinnati beat the Tampa Bay Rowdies in the third round.

Hughes, a longtime Crew fan and later a frontman of the Save The Crew movement, along with Cincinnati soccer fans Mike Burkel and Steven Williams, got on Twitter. Burkel asked Williams whether to create a poll to invent a “Cup.”

Within 28 seconds of each other, before they saw the other’s tweet, Hughes and Burkel offered the same name: the “Hell Is Real Cup.”

“I think the fact that we were both typing “HELL IS REAL Cup” at the same time means it’s officially a thing,” Hughes tweeted.

A day later, Crew supporter Tony Galiffo designed a black and gold scarf with “Hell Is Real” written on it in black with a gold outline — the “H” gold, like the road sign, has a red “H.” He began taking orders from other supporters. But later that week, FC Cincinnati lost, so it wouldn’t be facing the Crew after all.

The idea went on hiatus until the Open Cup matchup finally happened a year later in front of a massive crowd at Nippert Stadium. It was the most important game in FC Cincinnati history to that point — and its biggest win.

Crew fans yelled at players and then-coach Gregg Berhalter, and the banter between the fan bases hasn’t stopped since.

A rivalry was born.

"It went to the next level once we lost that first game because other than MLS Cup 2015, I don't think I've been that (angry) at the Crew for losing a soccer game,” Galiffo said.

While the “Hell Is Real” sign has taken on a new meaning to soccer fans in the state, Bob Hall, 92, and his wife Nancy, 86, had no idea about it. The sign has been on their farm since 2004 when Kentucky developer Jimmy Harston asked them to host one of his 20 billboards in five states that contained messages such as the Ten Commandments and “Hell Is Real.”

"Well, it is real,” Nancy said.

FC Cincinnati embraced the name of the rivalry from the onset, and the new ownership and management of the Crew that took control of the team this season did so quickly. Even the MLS front office has taken to the name — one that was born out of passion, not a boardroom.

"No Buckeye Cup. No I-71 Derby. None of that corporate garbage,” Galiffo said. "I think we have a real chance to show off something that really hasn't been seen in MLS. The Midwest cares about sports, and the Midwest is a special place for soccer. And no one really knows that. And to see the Crew and FC Cincinnati finally bring that to light is an amazing thing."

jmyers@dispatch.com

@Jacob_Myers_25