Opinion
Misinformed dolts ruin my game day
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Also by Drew Hansen:
- Full throttle to the bottle (December 14, 2004)
- Rather sad departure for Dan (December 2, 2004)
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Saturday was my last Badger football game as a student. Noting the occasion, I took a little extra time to walk around Camp Randall and the surrounding neighborhoods to take my last glimpse of the notorious pre-game revelry.
With the best Badger team I’ve had the pleasure of watching in five seasons, the spirit was has high as I’ve seen. Older tailgating alumni, younger redneck partiers, current students and the mixed bag of fans who make Regent St. bars their Saturday haunts were all anticipating a great game and a good time. Heck, the Gophers were in town, and the Axe was on the line.
Minus the good game, the 38-14 blowout offered me my last sight of the student section. Like most fall Saturdays these last three years, I was up in the press box. I haven’t sat in the student section since 2002, and for the first time I genuinely felt I had missed out on something.
I understand that for many students, Badger games are less about football and more about drinking, cheering and losing yourself in the thrall of red and white. For me, however, the game was always why I went. I dealt with the idiotic cheers, over-served fans and unorganized student seating just fine. It was all a necessary evil to see some of the best college players in the country, and yes, to cheer for the Badgers.
But I didn’t miss the student section when I moved upstairs. Things were better up there, and, like a king sitting on high, I looked down upon my fellow students. What I saw were a bunch of misinformed dolts who couldn’t get themselves to the game on time. There was no dignity and little sportsmanship in any of their cheering. Yeah, we all like beer, so I didn’t have much of a problem with that one, and we all like to jump around, but the eating of sh-t and shooting people like horses was all just tasteless. I was happy I could disassociate myself with that garbage.
Then last year there was all the commotion about Ohio State fans getting mercilessly taunted. Some of them even feared for their safety. These events shed a lot of light on the absurdity of Badger fandom and might even be more of a black eye on this school and city than three straight years of Halloween riots. Yes, I’ll agree Buckeye fans do deserve to be ridiculed, but threatened? Well maybe a little bit, but not enough to make them fear for their livelihood.
So in response the university “rolled out the red carpet” for visiting fans, making sure their visits went smoothly and without anything deterring their safety. There haven’t been any major complaints this season, and Saturday I even saw an older Gopher fan get on his knees and slurp down a two-story beer bong out of charity.
And I must admit, things have been different this year. Maybe it’s the way the Badgers are exceeding all expectations on the playing field, but the students do appear to be into every moment of every game. I still hear the cheers, which remain as vile and tasteless as ever. I maintain that they still shine poorly on our intelligence as a student body, but hell, it comes with the territory. I’ve learned to handle them.
So Saturday I stood up in the press box and jumped around a little bit after the student section race. I made sure to look up into the mass of students when the Badger players came by to present the Axe. You all certainly seemed elated — just as elated as the players — to have the trophy back in Bucky’s hands. I stopped for a moment to look around the whole stadium and take it all in. It had been a nice day, a great day for football. It’s been a great season, and I regained some respect for a student section I had lost all faith in.
Drew Hansen (drew@badgerherald.com) understands many of you will be offended by this column. Let him know how you feel.
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so, we don't show up on time, we make fun of the other team, and we swear at each other, and somehow that makes us misinformed dolts? Uh, I think you're misinformed as to what "misinformed" means. I mean, its not like we all show up at camp randall expecting a basketball game. that would be misinformed.
If you hated being in the student section so much, then good for you on staying up in the press box. But being in the student section IS most of the "game day" experience. Your headline is wrong. you haven't experienced game day, you've just experienced, well, "game" and I almost feel sorry for you. almost.
I would like to take the opportunity to thank Drew for writing this thought provoking column. That thought "How do you take an accusation of idiocy seriously when the accuser clearly has no concept of what the simple word misinformed means?"
HAHA too funny.
"so, we don't show up on time, we make fun of the other team, and we swear at each other, and somehow that makes us misinformed dolts?"
Um...let me think for a minute....
YES!!!
Drew-(aka 50 year old trapped in a college senior's body) if you hate the crazy antics of the student section so much, why don't you rent a big screen and enjoy the game in the comfort of your own home??
I'm pretty sure the student section in its entirety is aware of the fact that they are yelling profanities, heckling fans, and doing a few beer bongs. Its not misinformed. Its tradition. and its fun...
Being drunk does not equate being misinformed.
Thanks for writing an editorial to tell all of us how superior you fell you are.
In my experience, the Ohio State fans who felt 'threatened' were in the student section. I doubt there are any official rules or regulations on who can/should be allowed to purchase a ticket to the student section. The popular opinion though, is that the Athletic Department sells the tickets to UW-Madison students at a discounted rate because they attend the university. Resale to parents, friends, opposing team opponents is not condoned. Lets be realistc here, an opposing team's fan (more than likely a friend from the opposing team up for the weekend, drunk like the rest of the section) has no business being in the student section sporting his team's colors. It's like that guy who jumped into the lion's cage and got mauled when he tried to baptize them into Christianity. You're asking for trouble and the mere presence of the opposing team's colors in the home team's student section (the heart and soul of the cheering) is offensive to say the least.
ohio state is trash. they deserved to feel threatened on this campus.
that is all.
Who do you think you are....our student section is by far the best in the country, the antics are in our nature, we're BADGERS, your obviously just another media snob.
I'm sorry we all can't sip mint juleps in the booth like you. I will stick with my Beast. You must do a lot for the atmosphere while you're up in the booth. I'm sure the reason opposing coaches say Camp Randall is a tough place to play is because of fans like you. It couldn't have anything to do with drunk rowdy students who are loud regardless. I'm sure impressed recruits tell their parents, "Wow, UW's fans were so informed! I disliked those people who cheered fervently against the other team, but when that old man commented on the excellent trap block the guard threw, I just knew I would call Wisconsin home."
When was the last time A.D. threw up an "O" to the press box? Have fun telling your kids all about your crazy times in the box when you're 50.
dolts? you are so pathetic. the only thing worse than you not partying it up in the student section for 4 years is that you haven't got laid in Wisco for four years. Now we know why with this ridiculous article. Can we shoot you like a horse, ahole?
I'm sure Drew would rather go to Ole Miss where the students dress up in shirts and ties with sport coats, while the girls wear cocktail dresses. Yeah, I'm sure they're into the game down there. Do agree with him on some of the cheers, though. Wish some of them would stop but have resigned myself to the fact that they are here for good.
As a recent alum who would give up a lung and a kidney to be back in the student section, especially this year, it saddens me that there are actual students at UW who don't live and breath the glory that is the student section. To love the student section is to love every offensive, derogatory, sterotypical, mean, vulgar, drunken and outrageous act and chant. It is a tradition that I can only hope remains and grows. I just wish you could have realized while at UW that growing up sucks and you should enjoy your last few years of being a jackass in a sea of fellow jackasses. You'll never miss anything more than madison when you leave, and you'll get a little choked up every saturday when you have to watch the game on TV, and when you have to do 'jump around' with just the five other alums you know in your town.