I have lived in Ohio, and in South Carolina. I can definitely state that football was MUCH bigger in Ohio, that it is in the parts of South Carolina I’ve seen (and I’ve seen football in a number of different locales down here). As an example, when I substituted at Otsego High School, located in the farmland outside of Bowling Green, OH, the regular attendance on a Friday night was in the thousands, and if the game was against the traditional rivals Bowling Green or Eastwood, then perhaps as many as 5000 people would be at the game. Whole fields were filled with the cars. Records didn’t matter; it was equally true when Otsego was poor as when they were playoff bound.
By comparison, Friday nights at Indian Land High School, located just south of Charlotte, NC, are a tepid affair. We were lucky if we pulled in 500 fans; once or twice I think we cracked 1000 in the 8 years I taught there (I attended games religiously). That sort of attendance is not unusual for South Carolina, though some schools do manage to pull in more (raw numbers are bigger, of course, for bigger schools, like the Rock Hill or Fort Mill schools, but only proportionally so). It just wasn’t that big a thing to go watch, let alone to play as a young kid.
It took a while before professional football to catch on any where. It wasn’t until the 50s that pro football started to approach the popularity of college football. Catholics throughout the north rooted for Notre Dame. Army and Navy football were big deals. Teams like Fordham and Saint Peters and the Ivy League were big. Football started in the northeast. The NFL didn’t really become the powerhouse it is today until the 60s.
Agreed. Football isn’t uniformly popular across the south. When I say popular I mean Friday night lights cult of high school football popular. I would rank Ohio and rural Pennsylvania as being stronger football areas than some but not all of the south. Texas is not the south. Texas is Texas. In Texas in the fall half of the evening news is high school football highlights.
Pro football should be a big deal in Ohio. It started there. The American Pro Football Conference formed in 1920 with 5 teams from Akron, Canton, Cleveland, Dayton, and Rock Island. Later that year they changed their league’s name to the American
Pro football should be a big deal in Ohio. It started there. The American Professional Football Conference formed in 1920 with 5 teams from Akron, Canton, Cleveland, Dayton, and Rock Island. Later that year they changed their league’s name to the American Professional Football Association, and expanded to 14 teams. Two of those teams still exist; the Decatur Staleys are the Chicago Bears and the Chicago Cardinals are the Arizona Cardinals. Two years later, the AFPA renamed itself the NFL and still uses that name.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame is located in Canton, Ohio, the same city where the AFPA was created.
I go to Alabama regularly for my job, and it’s pretty freaking huge in that state. High school football on Friday, and college football on Saturday. One of the first questions that has to be addressed when you meet someone new is whether they cheer for Alabama or Auburn (and the Iron Bowl – the annual game between the two – is a de facto state holiday).
Why is football popular in the south? Why is it popular up north? Virtually the entire population of Green Bay Wisconsin will go to a Packers game, even if the temperature is below 0.
California has the highest number of players recruited to the NFL. It is of course the most populous state in the US, but it’s also because football is popular there. So why don’t you haters look for “toxic cultures” outside the south for once?
I didn’t say it wasn’t popular in the south. I said it wasn’t uniformly popular across the entire south. There is no where that it’s bigger than Texas.
I grew up in Green Bay; I’m a Packers shareholder and season ticket holder.
I’m not sure how much of that is “football is huge in Wisconsin” or “the Packers are huge in Wisconsin.” Packer fandom is a shared cultural thing in a lot of Wisconsin, in part because it is a small-town team, and in part because of the fan ownership of the team.
The University of Wisconsin Badgers football team is also fairly popular, and the fans are known for “traveling well” to bowl games, but that’s at least partially a function of them being consistently pretty good for the last 25 years; when I was going to school there in the 1980s, the football team was terrible, and fan support wasn’t particularly strong. High school football is certainly a thing in Wisconsin, but overall is popularity really isn’t comparable to what you see in Texas, or certain Southern states.
Also, Packer popularity may be influenced by the fact that there’s not a whole lot else to do in northern Wisconsin at that time of year, especially after deer hunting season ends.
For the record, I didn’t say that the South was a toxic culture because they like football. I said that it was a toxic culture because of a Southerner explaining their liking football in terms of the Civil War, and being proud of that. Southerners being proud of their role in the civil war is absolutely toxic.
I totally understand. I’m originally from Shreveport, which is Dallas Cowboys country (or at least was back in the day–not sure about now).
The Saints could have been in Alaska, as far as all the folks I knew would think. The local TV station showed Cowboys games. I remember one Sunday when, for some reason, they showed the Saints game instead and I swear folks about burned the station down. They never made *that *mistake again.
But most folks not from Louisiana don’t understand the disconnect between the northern part of the state and any part of Louisiana south of Bunkie. The north is
Bible Belt Protestant, with dry parishes. The south is Cajun Catholic with drive-through daiquiri bars and transvestite parades in New Orleans.
From a “Mason / Dixon Line” standpoint, they do. But, you’re right about basketball being bigger there.
From what I see, the “football is huge in the South” states are really Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Texas, and Oklahoma.
