Friday, April 24, 2009

#13: Being Nice to Opposing Fans

One critical part of a Notre Dame Student’s life is football season, and during football season a lot of people come to campus for the games.  Students love getting free meals from parents and tailgating with Alums, but there are many people that come to campus to support the opposing team.  While these opposing fans are not usually the nicest or classiest people to visit our Mother’s Campus, Notre Dame Students can’t help themselves but be inordinately nice to the fans that come. 

It’s not that Notre Dame Students shouldn’t be nice to people that come from places like East Lansing, West Lafayette, Ann Arbor, and Los Angeles; it’s just that these people are not typically very nice to the Notre Dame Students.  When Notre Dame Students go to these places, they are typically greeted with drunken buffoons yelling RUDY SUCKS or FUCK THE POPE at them.  Some Notre Dame Students have gotten into fights and had beer cans thrown at them on opposing campuses, but Notre Dame Students refuse to give the same hospitality.

When the football team is bad (see 2007), Notre Dame Students will typically make jokes about it with the opposing fans.  They will discuss the teams at length and even share some beers with opposing fans no matter how disrespectful these fans might be.  Notre Dame Students might invite opposing fans to play drinking games, or even bring them to parties with them.  It is of the utmost importance to make opposing fans feel at home regardless of how they make Notre Dame Students feel at away games.

One exception to the rule is fans from Boston College.  Notre Dame Students are disproportionally mean to these fans by incessantly referring to them as a backup college, sometimes bringing them to tears.  The irony is that Boston College fans are more hospitable to Notre Dame Students than any other opposing team.  

Posted by at 8:44 PM
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11 comments:

  1. im sorry, im usually a fan, but this one is slacking.
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  3. Bob you only said that BC fans are hospitable because Sharky's friend let us drink at his place for a couple hours.
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  4. Yet, there's that new thing with "Suck It [insert opposing team]" being chanted by the student body. I'm a recent graduate and that was never done during football games when I was there.
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  5. People need to get over the whole "suck it" cheer...it's not offensive and anyone who is offended can suck it
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  6. This one couldn't be more wrong. BC HATES ND more than any other school. Its the little brother college. When we play them in Chestnut Hill its like their Super Bowl. They go out in droves to trash ND. They are inordinately uncivil. Besides Michigan, they are the worst fans when it comes to hating ND.

    And not that its a bad thing to be polite to opposing fans, but its not like we invite them in to beat us. We're usually polite to older fans but the younger ones who are looking for trouble usually get it back in spades. I've seen plenty of vitriol spewed at the opposing clowns dumb enough to sit in the student section with the other team's gear on.
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  7. Is it true you could hear the chant, "F-ck Pete Carroll" on the NBC broadcast last year?
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  8. I went to BC as an undergrad and ND as a grad student, and though it is absolutely true that BC hates ND with a passion it reserves for no one else (BU hockey comes close, as does Duke basketball), overall, BC kids are happy to have ND students/friends/whatever visit during those games. Everyone is civil off the field. I mean, it's the Mods. Hard to hate anyone in the Mods. BC is a genuinely welcoming place.

    So I would have to disagree with an above anonymous post. BC does hate ND, and it is their Super Bowl, but this post was about being nice to opposing fans. BC hates ND with a passion, but that doesn't say anything about hating ND students, which they definitely do not. We'll still give you free beer if you stop by... it's cool that you care enough to come out to the game.
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  9. hi there, yeah i was at the BC game last year and i don't think they thought it was "cool" i came out to the game. i had to endure 3 hours of "fuck notre dame" chants and preppy new england girls who didn't understand football flipping me off on top of watching our pitiful shut out in the rain. i won't go back
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  10. I can't comment on being at the game, but coming from the east coast and being a die-hard ND fan since I was born, I have to say BC fans are the most obnoxious and annoying fans I've ever come across--to the point that I avoid them if I see them. It doesn't matter how bad BC plays, they will always give me shit no matter how well or poorly we play.
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  11. this post sucked
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