Can a UT fan be a real fan if they didn't attend UT?

#31
#31
I've heard these arguments, and what it boils down to in my estimation is loyalty. A true fan is unconditionally loyal to his or her team.

Now, a person being an alumnus of a particular university seems to make it more likely that that person will be loyal for the simple fact that you can't change that you went to school there. This is probably what has a lot of people confused because, by default, nearly all bandwagoners (not real fans) don't have explicit university ties.

This being said, the only thing that determines fandom is loyalty. If you are unconditionally loyal to UT, then you are a fan. Period. It doesn't matter if you never went to the school a day in your life.
 
#33
#33
Ever since i could walk and talk I said i wanted to go to UT. My first game was in '98, against Houston. I have been to 1-2 games just about every year since that year. When it came to college, Tennessee was at the top of the list. I came and visited and I hated it. Too Big. Too much partying, etc. I decided to go to UT Martin and have loved the decision.

If someone told me I wasn't a fan because I didn't go to college there, they would be crazy
 
#34
#34
Exactly. If one must be a graduate of a given university before they can be a fan, then I would not be a fan of any school with an athletic program, since the only degree I have at the moment is an Associate's from the Community College of the Air Force. One more semester and I could call myself a BG fan though.

As I see it, if you root for a team, and you still root for them whether they are having a good year or an awful year, you're a fan. Anybody who says it requires more than that is full of crap.
 
#35
#35
UT football stretches beyond the borders of the campus. This is the team that means so much to the folks of East Tennessee and the entire state. I did not go to undergrad there, but I went to the Health Sciences in Memphis. However, my family has had tickets since before I was born, and my father was a UT post-grad alum. I bleed Orange fo sho
 
#36
#36
If you grew up in the region and/or had a strong tie to a particular school since birth (parents were supporters, their parents were supporters, etc.), then you can be considered a fan of a school without actually having attended said institution. I ask anyone who disagrees with that assertion to look at the profound impact UT has had on East Tennessee and tell me that anyone who didn't attend the school isn't a "real fan."

However, I don't think you're a "true" fan of a school if you have a more or less arbitrary appreciation for the program. A catholic Boston University graduate in Massachusetts watching Notre Dame on Saturday simply isn't on the same level as someone who grew up in the vicinity of South Bend/a Notre Dame graduate, just as a kid in North Dakota suddenly rooting for Florida as a result of their newfound national prominence isn't a true Gators fan.
 
#37
#37
I'm a true fan. If you have to ask someone if you are, maybe you aren't.

Then again, I plan to retire to Tennessee and get my doctorate there.
 
#38
#38
ULQQKED said:
I have run into this on Gator boards and they say NO.

The first college I applied to was UT and got accepted but couldn't afford the tuition, my father was in the Army and home was Missouri. I went to Mizzou for two years and finished my degree with Maryland while in the Navy.

I posted the UT scores on my eraser board on my dorm room door while at Mizzou, watched all UT games I could find while in the Persian Gulf while in the Navy, Moved to TN after I got out of the Navy and proceeded to attend 5-7 games a year while I lived in Nashville. I am back in Missouri and fly UT flags on my car and wear UT attire.

Am I not a true UT fan?
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You sir, rock! I went to UT for undergrad, Mizzou for grad school...did the same thing all over Columbia! I wore orange to the Mizzou games I went to. Don't ever doubt that you are a Vol.
 
#39
#39
corona1898 said:
If that was the case, Bama would only have 26 fans in the stadium.
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And only four of them could count that high.....

:crazy::crazy::crazy::crazy::crazy::crazy::crazy: :crazy::crazy::crazy::mf_surrender: :crazy::crazy::crazy::crazy::crazy::crazy::crazy:
 
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#40
#40
duckman398686 said:
this is always a stupid argument with a ton of flaws

someone needs to go in their forum and ask them if they seriously think that everyone that wears blue and orange on saturdays at ben hill griffin stadium are all alums.

if you're a fan of a team, you're a fan of a team. simple as that.
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X2
 
#42
#42
fan by definition is short for fanatic. No bandwagon jumpers allowed.

You can be pissed at them for not showing up to play, being unprepared, etc., but they are still the team you follow & root for. I didn't attend UT, I attended Austin Peay. It was closer to home & many other factors, but I had many friends that graduated from UT & used to go up to Knoxville at lot of weekends to visit when I was in college.

plus for the simple fact, you are a part of VolNation, you are a fan, a fanatic if you will, & you don't need some jerk from a rival team convincing you where your loyalties lie
 
#43
#43
ULQQKED said:
I have run into this on Gator boards and they say NO.

The first college I applied to was UT and got accepted but couldn't afford the tuition, my father was in the Army and home was Missouri. I went to Mizzou for two years and finished my degree with Maryland while in the Navy.

I posted the UT scores on my eraser board on my dorm room door while at Mizzou, watched all UT games I could find while in the Persian Gulf while in the Navy, Moved to TN after I got out of the Navy and proceeded to attend 5-7 games a year while I lived in Nashville. I am back in Missouri and fly UT flags on my car and wear UT attire.

Am I not a true UT fan?
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Whoever told you that on a gator board should look around the state of florida and see all the t shirts, bumper stickers, etc on people who in no way ever could have gotten into school in the first place. Of course you can be a Vol fan. Look at all the Vol mailboxes in places like Athens, Ducktown, etc,,,, you know they did not go to college - anywhere. Tennessee is their school though.
 
#44
#44
I grew up with UT as my team and cheered for them through good and bad, thick and thin. But when it came to my college choices, I wanted to get a little further away from home and really enjoyed another place more and felt it was a better fit for me and my further education.

Does that mean I'm not allowedto be a UT fan? I would think not.
 
#46
#46
I have lived in the University of Illinois my entire life. My mom and dad are both alums of the U of I, and both work for it now. I have always been a decent fan of Illinois, but my first sports game ever was the 1998 National Championship game, and ever since that game I have been a Tennessee fan. Call it "Bandwagoning" (when I was 7) but that is how I became a UT fan. My parents are not big sports fans, but they questioned why Tennessee, since I had no ties at all to it. I have posters, shirts, jerseys, accessories UT. I couldn't even think about applying to UT since I wouldn't be able to afford it even if I got in, so i now go to Southern Illinois. My entire room is Tennessee gear and logos with a white board proudly displaying "63-7 is how the Kiffin era begins..." on it. You can say I don't deserve to be a fan or what-not because I don't go to Tennessee, but I couldn't control that. What I, along with other FANS in my situation can do, is control watching, enjoying, and cheering on the game every time the Vols take the field. And Why would we ever care what opinions the Florida boards have anyways?

And btw, if you have to have graduated, what does that make every single college student, or even high school student called then? A Pre-Fan? A Fan-Teen? Just Ridiculous.
 
#48
#48
I was a Vol fan LONG before I was old enough to be in college. I did not attend UT when I was old enough. Many of the fans became Vol supporters only after enrolling in school there. So, I feel like I am more of a fan than them. It's been in my life almost since I was a small child.
I was a Cowboys fan for a couple decades but I never saw them play a game in person. I am an Indy fan currently but have never seen them play in person. You be a fan of who you like. I will never let another tell me why I can't be a fan of a team.
 
#50
#50
This is just silly. Of course you can be a fan without having a degree. The best fans we have never attended the university. Orange has run thick through my blood since conception and one can develop this gene throughout life.
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