Nostalgia

#1

blitz

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Apr 23, 2013
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#1
With all the negativity and disappointment surrounding the football program right now, I have found myself questioning why I invest so much in Tennessee football. This is not new. We have all suffered many disappointments over the years, but this is a new low. However, I do not find myself out on the same ledge as many of the people in this forum and I wonder why?

I live in Greenville, SC, Clemson and SCAR country, and believe me, I wish our football program was doing better, but I am surprised that I am not more upset. It sucks to drive three hours to witness a loss (the drive back is even worse). So, I have been thinking about why I’m not more upset. Why am I still excited about having season tickets? There was a time when I didn’t know if I would ever be able to afford season tickets and I have wondered, for the first time this year, if the expense is worth it.

Then I think about my first game. I grew up in Chattanooga and I played football until High School, but then I focused on track and wrestling. I really liked playing football, but I didn’t care much about watching college or pro ball. Then someone took me to a game at Neyland. I was hooked. The band, the team running through the T, over 100,000 people wearing orange, TN kicking the sh*t out of some poor team 40 to nothing… I loved it and have been a die hard ever since.

I decided to go to college at UTK and I can’t imagine going anywhere else for undergrad. I remember so many great classes. I remember my anthropology lab being in a classroom in Neyland stadium. So, (Blindside), there are or were, actually human skeletons in the stadium. I remember going into the empty stadium and walking on the field, looking up at the enormous empty bowl. Playing football and softball on the intramural fields. I ran laps on the same track as Justin Gatlin and Christian Coleman and so many Olympic medalists.

I remember making out with my girlfriend in the stacks at the library. I remember the girl who got away because I was an arrogant prick. I remember spending so many hours in the studio, so many hours studying. I remember the triumph of doing well in classes and the disappointment in myself for doing not so well in others. I remember getting caught spending time “studying” (without permission) my dorm roommate's Playboy magazine.

So much great music! I saw Ween on the strip and got thrown out for getting on stage. I dropped acid and saw Medeski, Martin and Wood at a tiny bar in Market Square. I saw Buddy Guy, Susan Tedeschi, and B.B. King. I saw 311 and No Doubt. I saw the Violent Femmes at the World’s Fair Park amphitheater. Hell, I went to the World’s Fair when I was a kid. Not necessarily great music, but my girlfriend, the one who got away, was an intern at a radio station and got tickets to INSYNC at Thompson Boling and made me go with her. I remember my graduation ceremony in that same arena. Besides that, there were so many great local and indie touring bands that I saw in Old City.

I went to graduate school at the University of Georgia and I loved that too. I could legitimately become a bulldog fan at any time, but the bulldogs never did it for me. The Big Orange was and is the only team I really care about. I guess that is why I am still proud to wear the T at work, why I still hang the UT flag on my house every game day and why I still want to go to games.

A win or loss by a Tennessee sports team does not define me, nor does it define any of you. I am, as a person, however, made up partly of my experiences in Knoxville and at the University of Tennessee. So, that is why I feel no shame, in fact pride, when I continue to display my TN gear. I hope my nostalgia will help some of you remember why Knoxville and the University of Tennessee is, and always will be, a special place.
 
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#3
#3
I proudly wear my orange now right now because this is when my team needs fan support, it's easy to be proud of your school when they are doing well but only the true fans are there during the tough times. I was born a Vol and I'll die a Vol that much I know.
Please show me a bandwagon UT football fan, please because they need help in a bad way
 
#4
#4
I think we need to clarify this. Just because a fan is disappointed with what they are seeing and voicing that frustration does not make him/her a bandwagon fan. If we were bandwagon fans we would not be around. We would not be frustrated by the losses. We would not be angry. Don't confuse passionate fans as bad fans. Tennessee should be most afraid when the fans stop caring at all.
 

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