Here is a topic that I have wanted to address for a while now, and I feel that its time has come. Particularly during the 2009 football season and Bama’s triumphant win in the BCS game, there have been a FEW Bama alumni who have been quietly grumbling and complaining about non-alumni fans. According to these upper crust alum (read: snobs), those who attended the University of Alabama are the truest fans, and those who did not attend somehow rank as second-class fans. I do not understand this point of view, and I (who counts herself among the non-alumni fans) will try to explore it here:
Is it because you’re upset that some fans are not as sophisticated as yourselves? I understand that you might not necessarily want, say, someone who is registered on the national sex offender registry to show up to court sporting a Crimson Tide shirt (unfortunately, this is a true anecdote). However, there are some less-than-proud alumni from your school as well (Bernie Madoff, anyone?). Not everyone can afford/live up to the rigors of a college education; in fact, what makes your degree so special is that not just anyone can obtain one. And keep in mind that those “less than sophisticated” fans still have money, and they still spend it on t-shirts, tickets, etc. that go to fund the school’s athletic program. Heck, some of the biggest donors to the athletics department of the school may not be alumni. You know who else are not alumni? Nick and Terry Saban. So there.
Is it because you think that they should root for other teams? I don’t get this, either. If you have any familiarity with the state of Alabama (and all good alumni should have a working knowledge of the culture of the South), you are well aware that there are no professional sports in this state. We have some minor league teams that feed into some pro sports, but nothing even comes close to the priority given to SEC football. Because we have no pro teams, we focus all of our energies into our two main schools, Bama and that other one. (And because this is where our focus lies, no pro team will ever establish itself in our state. And the vicious cycle continues.) You want the school to have lots and lots of fans, right? You want the games to be well attended? You want the stadium filled during spring practice? You’re going to have to rely on some non-alum-types to do so. We non-alums have nowhere else to focus our sports energies, and so many of us choose the Tide.
Here’s the other thing you’re forgetting about why there are so many non-alumni fans: the history of college football and the dominance of Bear Bryant and Alabama football in the 60s and 70s. Back then, there was no ESPN. Everyone focused on pro sports, and college football received regional coverage, if that. But there was at least one team that received national attention, and that was the Crimson Tide. My dad talks about when he would drive to and from Chicago in the mid-70s for a job, and he would listen to Alabama on the radio from Bama to Illinois, and could always find the game on at least one station. That’s big, folks. Let’s face it, our state didn’t have a whole lot to be proud of on a national level in the 60s (Bull Conner, anyone?). But our state did have the Bear and the Tide, and they were pretty good at football. So naturally, many in the state gravitated toward the team that was receiving such positive national attention.
So to you high brow alumni who look down your noses at us non-alum types, I would say you need to be a little bit more understanding about those who wish to share the Bama bandwagon with you. We all have the same goal: to support the greatest and most storied program in the history of college football. We all want the same thing: repeated National Championships. And we all love Mount Cody. Isn’t that enough to bring us all together?
