Sportsmanship - Is it Just me, or..... ?

I went down to ESU, Enormous State University, last night to see a hockey game with my daughter. She got me the ticket for Christmas.

It was interesting to see the that the fans of the visiting team were well represented, especially for a game that was a 5 and 1/2 hour drive for them. All in all, their fan section had good spirit, but in my mind they may have crossed the line when "en masse" they sang the old Bruce Channel song "Hey, Baby, I wanna know, will you be my girl ?".

EXCEPT, the lyrics were changed a bit, and they called out the home team ESU goalie by first name and said "Hey, hey XXXXXXXXX, I wanna know, why you suck so bad ?". I'm sure XXXXXXXX couldn't care less.

BUT, did the visiting fans cross the line with that, or am I getting old ?

Apparently it was Cub Scout night as well, they must have listed 20 or more different packs on the Jumbotron during one of the breaks.

So not to keep you in suspense, the home ESU team won. By scoring 5 goals, that also snagged me a free Big Mac for the drive home.

When I was teeny-something age (which wasn't yesterday, maybe the day before) there was a high school in the Seattle area with a student body that was made up almost entirely from the spawn of scientists, engineers, tech-geeks, and suchlike. Picture Bill Gates as your power forward or middle linebacker. They were not studs on the athletic fields & courts, never won, rarely scored. They had a unique cheer in their pep-squad's arsenal: "That's all right, that's okay, you're gonna work for us some day!" I thought it was fine, lemonade from lemons and all at the time, kinda cute and funny. And now, true.

Not just you, fan behavior has gotten quite boorish over the years. In the late 1990s Buffalo Bills games got to be unattendable by good people. The breaking point was two fans having sex in the stands and half the stadium noticed it, it made the radio shows. What happens is a few boors behave bad, so good people get turned off. More boors come and more good people go to a sports bar, and it keeps feeding on itself. What was once behavior at a WWF house show is now everywhere.

Just more of the general decline of society.

It's a nice little take on an old time hockey serenade where you say the opposing goalies name 3 times slowly and then yell out "You Suck" after it. I am in my late 30s and I remember going to UW Badger games in the 80s where they did that. I think at the root of a lot of these "is it just me or is it getting worse" arguments is people getting more and more aware of their surroundings, particularly if they are bringing a kid to a game

Buffalo fans have gotten a really bad name here too, and quite deservedly. Back when the NHL Hurricanes were actually in the playoffs, the Buffalo games were really bad. Carolina is known for the tailgating that takes place before the games. A good time, lots of barbecuing, etc. Buffalo trouble makers tried hard to really ruin it. There were many fights in the parking lot, and a lot of swear words. It definitely became un kid friendly. It takes two sides to fight, but I saw three fights around us, and all were initiated by boorish Buffalo fan behavior. And it wasn't like it was just a few. It seemed like 60% of the people wearing Buffalo gear were acting like jack offs. Perhaps hockey just attracts a majority of thugs?
The pièce de résistance was the game that the Canes won and were giving away a nice heavy duty 16 oz beer glass. The Buffalo fans were exiting the arena and smashing the glasses on the concrete, so everyone leaving was walking in a sea of glass. I was refusing free tickets to Buffalo games for 2 years after that, but things have quieted down lately, probably because those jerks weren't really fans, and with Buffalo struggling as bad as we are, their 'fans' have turned to other past times , like starting bar fights.

With apologies to our fine members from the Buffalo area on this board.

"You suck"? That's positively mild. I mean, that's daytime TV mild. Unless we're talking a children's game, it is far, far better than anything I've ever seen.

Quote: RaleighCraps

With apologies to our fine members from the Buffalo area on this board.

You go on and direct that strictly to SOOPOO. This WNY'er may have once upon a time been quoted as saying the Khmer Rouge Regime was a great idea directed at the wrong group of people. And if you think that's a little overboard, you cannot begin to handle the rest of my opinions on Buffalo fans.

True story - I grew up a Dolphin fan in Bills country, was so since the age of 4. When I was 8 or 9, I got taken to my first game, MIA vs BUF. Think my age mattered? Ha! One guy approached me in a Bills cooking apron. He got my attention, and when I looked at him, he screamed "SUCK IT!!" and pulled a string which lifted his apron and revealed a dildo positioned just so, wagging it in my face.

He was a grown man. I was 9.

Oh, the day this $%@+box team gets sold... I'll be floating around Niagara Square on angel's wings, blissfully bathing in the resulting river of tears. And I'll be the first person on site with my hammer to sign up for manpower to lay The Ralph low. And I'm gonna buy One Bills Drive and erect giant statues of Scott Norwood, and Brett Hull, and Frank Wycheck, so none will ever forget that they're permanent and perpetual losers. And... and... and...

Tim Horton was a MAPLE LEAF!!!

Quote: Gabes22

It's a nice little take on an old time hockey serenade where you say the opposing goalies name 3 times slowly and then yell out "You Suck" after it. I am in my late 30s and I remember going to UW Badger games in the 80s where they did that. I think at the root of a lot of these "is it just me or is it getting worse" arguments is people getting more and more aware of their surroundings, particularly if they are bringing a kid to a game

I have to disagree with your last; in my lifetime (mid-50's) it's absolutely gotten worse. People used to get ejected if they tried stuff like that dildo nonsense; high school and college students were completely NOT allowed to do cheers like that, to the point they would stop the game and tell them so over the PA. IMO, it's the squeegee-guy syndrome, where lots of little stuff getting widespread and tolerated leads to lots of worse stuff and in epidemic proportions. And that's the only level they can intervene to solve it, though it would help a lot if the world weren't full of insult comics, ugly music lyrics, and trash-talking sports stars. Comics are supposed to make you laugh, not shock; music is supposed to be lyric and poetic, and sports are supposed to be noble champions or give it their best shot. Big disconnect, and we're not just surrounded by it, we're inundated with it.

Hockey was the only exception 40 years ago, where guys could get into it, but they also had the penalty box to take care of true nastiness. They used to play basketball in the NBA. Now they play slamma-jamma in-your-face muggings, with rare exceptions. Baseball, there was always some guy yelling about the bums, but it was almost an honorary thing, with a few designated wise guys at the game.

Yeah, I'm getting old. Doesn't mean it's not WAY worse. It is, according to sociologists, the surest sign of a corrupt and declining society - public rudeness and the lack of courtesy and awareness. After that, it's only a matter of time. And what are kids supposed to model on? What they see, what they hear, what they experience. They have to reject all of that stuff to get to the beauty and dignity. Tough job, for them, and for their parents to guide them.

IMO, this is specific to America. I did not see the same rudeness in London last year, or Europe the year before that. Definitely not in Canada but I haven't been up there in 10 years. (It was funny, how I've heard all my life about the rudeness of the French; I finally got there, and they could not have been more courteous and hospitable, not just to me, but to each other.) Scandinavians don't live like this, but I've met some very rude Germans recently. Not seeing it in Oceania or Asian friends, but I'm meeting them here, can't speak with any knowledge about their homelands. The bad part is, American culture is being exported nearly everywhere, and the ugliness seems to predominate what we broadcast. They want what we have and don't realize we don't have it any more; we're living in the shadow of what we built.

Some folks are trying; insipid but sometimes touching stuff like random acts of kindness, flash mobs, anti-bullying measures, other things, but an awful lot of what used to be common practice has become the exception instead.

/rant. If you got this far, thanks for reading.

Quote: RaleighCraps

Buffalo fans have gotten a really bad name here too, and quite deservedly. Back when the NHL Hurricanes were actually in the playoffs, the Buffalo games were really bad. Carolina is known for the tailgating that takes place before the games. A good time, lots of barbecuing, etc. Buffalo trouble makers tried hard to really ruin it. There were many fights in the parking lot, and a lot of swear words. It definitely became un kid friendly. It takes two sides to fight, but I saw three fights around us, and all were initiated by boorish Buffalo fan behavior. And it wasn't like it was just a few. It seemed like 60% of the people wearing Buffalo gear were acting like jack offs. Perhaps hockey just attracts a majority of thugs?

Hockey has always had that certain segment of fans who come for the fights and not the game. Who wins is less important to them than if there is a good fight. The problem is even the NHL seems to want to give this group satisfaction. Though I have been to various games in Buffalo and didn't see much issue. At Bills games half the Steeler fans seemed to be there with their WNY friends.

They're just getting into the goalie's head.

Speaking of which, this reminds me of a story about a stunt that a bunch of Cal students pulled a few years ago (warning: some of the details may not be entirely accurate). Back in the days of the Pac-10, the men's basketball regular season usually consisted of a geographical pair of teams both traveling to play another pair of teams over a weekend; in this case, USC and UCLA each had games at both Cal and Stanford. In the middle of the Cal-USC game, a USC player was at the free throw line, and a bunch of Cal students chanted the player's name and a phone number; it turns out that they had started up an E-mail conversation with the player by pretending to be a female student (I can't remember if "she" was supposed to be from Cal or UCLA), and the number was the one "she" gave him to call her...

Eight, six, seven; five, three, oh, nine.

Good story.

There used to be a player way back in the day for Austin Peay University. His name was James "the fly" Williams. Students used to chant. "The fly is open, let's go Peay"

Quote: ThatDonGuy

They're just getting into the goalie's head.

Barracking the goalie seems to be a hockey tradition around these parts. It's mostly pointless, as goal keepers can't hear it, from what I've been told.

At University of South Carolina, their nickname is the Gamecocks. They used to chant "You can't beat our Cocks".

Quote: Gabes22

It's a nice little take on an old time hockey serenade where you say the opposing goalies name 3 times slowly and then yell out "You Suck" after it.

The ESU pep band didn't play this song, but they acted it out (maybe you had to be there) and it was fun to watch and hear, and I might add, done with Good Sportsmanship !

THIS SONG

Quote: thecesspit

Barracking the goalie seems to be a hockey tradition around these parts. It's mostly pointless, as goal keepers can't hear it, from what I've been told.

reminds me of trying to justify screwing around on a machine because of "heat" or "comps" or "I wanted to see what this person next to me was playing". It never works, but I try to explain anyway.

It's so funny to watch some of the same posters who whine about Political Correctness complain in this thread about how the world is going to hell because of rudeness. Cognitive Dissonance in it's finest.

As we get older we tend to look at the world through rose colored glasses. Several psychological studies have been done on this very same subject in fact.
How easy it is to forget how segregated the players and stands used to be. Oh my it certainly was a finer day when fans could yell death threats at a ball player just for the audacity of playing while black. Even better when his own teammates joined in on the fun.
I for one long for the days when even the filthy Irish were considered lesser people and would move seats so as not to be near them. I mean who do they think they are being Irish? And don't even get me started on those darn Italians!

Yes, it was a simpler time when women were shunned at sporting events. I'm still perplexed on how they even got the right to vote.
I truly do miss the rampant cheating, head hunting and fixing of games, it certainly made them much more interesting.

I could go on and on, but I think you guys get the point. Sure in some ways it was a better time, but overall I think we have progressed for the better. We choose the remember the good times because of the fond memories associated with them. We forget the bad because, well, who wants to remember that? There were many shameful things that we need to be aware of in order to never repeat them. You have to keep in mind that with today's 24 hour news cycle, cell phones, text, the internet, social media, etc... People are now more informed than ever before, and sex, blood, and misdeeds sell more than puppies and kittens, and it's always been that way. And yet crime over all in this country is still on a 30 year decline.

But remember always remember this.
The idea of women playing sports was such an inconceivable notion, one would be laughed in their face.
Jack Johnson was arrested for daring to drive a white woman across state lines.
And Ty Cobb played baseball.