I was at a bar last night with a few people. One of them from University of Illinois, and one from U. of Wisconson. The one from Wisconson was saying that the Ohio Buckeyes were the rudest, most assholic fans in football. If they lose, they riot. If they end up in a minor bowl, they get pissed, pick fights, burn cars and riot. They were even banned from ever playing in some minor bowl because of this.
Is this true? If so, are they even capable of “getting a life.” What’s the deal with Columbus that inspires this. It has been a prosperous city in an area that has suffered decline. I could go on about rude sports fans in general.
The trend towards violent fans seems to be in the northern U.S.
I find Texas A&M fans to be fanatical, but I have never heard of them going nuts and looting property.
Ironic, because many of the crime levels of northern cities are lower than that of the south (no cite, so feel free to prove me wrong). Or maybe not. The south is more tolerent of a “loot my property and get shot” attitude.
This is part debate, I know. But rant all you want. It is important for combating my ignorance on this subject.
Of course, this could just be a big 10 rivalry thing.
Keep in mind, I have no prejudice. Or only very recent prejudice.
Well, remember they’re in Ohio this time of year, so they need to burn stuff and riot in order to get the blood flowing and to keep warm. It’s too hot in Texas to riot.
There appears to be a universal attitude in the Big Ten that no one likes Ohio State. It’s not that we don’t like them because we just don’t as much as their attitude and arrogance makes them unlikeable. When comes to football Saturdays, no one supports Ohio State, except Ohio State fans. Even when Ohio State is playing a non-Big Ten team, we support the other team. Including the National Championship Fiesta Bowl game.
It’s all Woody Hays fault, I guess.
OTOH, Mrs. Duckster is from Alabama. She says in the SEC it’s Tennessee that’s the pariah. Tennessee fans are rude, crude and socially unacceptable, just like their team. So bad in fact, that Mrs. Duckster will cough, chokesupportcough Auburn over Tennessee any day of the week.
I’ve lived outside and worked in Ann Arbor and I have a number of friends who are from Columbus. The impression I have gotten over the last 25 years is that when The Big One (U of Mich vs OSU) is played in Columbus, there will only be rioting (and that rare) if there is a really big win or a game where the fans thught they were robbed. If the game is played in Ann Arbor, there will be no ritoing. OTOH, when the game is played in Ann Arbor, the incidence of vandalism–especially to UoM logos and such–skyrockets, while if the game is played in Columbus, the amount of vandalism is negligible to non-existent–and then it is directed toward UoM property.
I have no police statistics, only anecdotes from both cities saying the same thing. (And, of course, this is quite possibly due to a very tiny number of jerks who repeat the same pranks each year–alumni who never grew up, or something, rather than the great mass of OSU students.)
It’s been since 1968 that OSU won the title, but they’ve almost always been close. There’s many years of frustration just now being relieved. When titles become more normal, the fans’ behavior may become more normal too.
Posted by Duckster: "OTOH, Mrs. Duckster is from Alabama. She says in the SEC it’s Tennessee that’s the pariah. Tennessee fans are rude, crude and socially unacceptable, just like their team. So bad in fact, that Mrs. Duckster will cough, choke support cough Auburn over Tennessee any day of the week.
That says alot, too."
I’ll agree with Ms. Duckster there, Tennessee fans are the worst in the Southeast.
Well, I’ll agree with her to a point, that is. Me rooting for 'bammer against Tennessee or anybody else would simply be crossing the line.
Hell, I drove to Birmingham once to yell for the Russian basketball team against 'bammer, so I root for Tennessee against them too.
My only real encounter with Buckeye fans was in elementary and middle school, when two of them (a married couple, as luck would have it) were my band directors for four straight years.
The part of the experience that really got old was the ubiquity: that is, we were constantly reminded of their status as Buckeye fans, even when it was completely irrelevant to the topic on hand. Perhaps it was because the two in question were expatriates (this took place far away from Ohio), but we were constantly reminded of their college-football allegiance; as a elementary kid, being told this even before and after the football season, it grows quickly tiresome. I imagine the setting wouldn’t make any difference, really.
(I ought to note, in fairness, that the two band directors in question were generally reprehensible people, so my anecdotal population sample may be a touch skewed. :p)
(I also ought to note that this is entirely not the sort of thread I expected to jump out of lurkerdom to post in, but hey, whatever works, right?)
Eh, not entirely true. There was this big case in St. Petersburg back in…96, I think? Anyway, this cop shot a guy who was in a car and alledgedly drove towards her instead of getting out of the car, some people said he just slipped, others said he didn’t move at all and she just shot him for no reason. Anyway, he died, and just happened to be black.
So the black residents of St. Petersburg decided to protest by looting and burning their entire half of the city, the whole thing. So the “loot my property and get shot” must not apply to St. Pete, rather a “get shot, then we’ll loot our own property” mentality
-foxy
