He poisoned the famous oak trees at Toomer’s Corner. When he admitted to doing it by calling in to the Finebaum radio show, he ended his call with the Alabama slogan “Roll Damn Tide.” He was arrested. Bail was set at $50000. He paid it and exited prison with his middle finger pointed straight at the media.
If Harvey Almorn Updike Jr. isn’t the craziest, most die-hard Alabama fan on the planet, I would like to know who is.
Now don’t get me wrong, the guy is a moron for what he did. Destroying a historic symbol of any university over a sports rivalry is unjust and uncalled for in any situation.
The “Iron Bowl” rivalry is a football game that is known for its bad blood between Auburn University — home of the Toomer’s Corner trees — and the University of Alabama. However, infecting the trees with herbicide at Toomer’s Corner is probably the worst act by any single fan in the rivalry’s history.
Even though this event shocked and horrified me, it made me wonder what it would be like to have more non-student fans act as if they were cheering from the student section. While I’m not advocating the craziness of Updike, it would be nice to see the majority of attendees showing more emotion at home games.
The truth is, I play football at a university that values academics over everything else. While this should be the top priority at every university, it doesn’t mean that our athletic teams should have fans outside of family, friends and students who do nothing more than simply show up to games.
What I’m trying to say is that Northwestern fans should not only show up to games to support their teams, but they should influence the game in a way that is favorable to the home team.
This season, both the Northwestern football and men’s basketball teams launched marketing campaigns to raise attendance and revenue. A major element of each team’s campaign was to make tickets to home games against in-state rival Illinois available only through the purchase of season tickets.
Even with that strategy in place, both games at Wrigley Field and Welsh-Ryan Arena saw large numbers of Illinois fans attend each game and participate in a way that made it appear they were the home team, not Northwestern.
In addition, the most energy I feel at Big Ten home football games comes from our sideline and the other team’s fans. While they often don’t out number our home fans, they certainly make more noise.
The use of a song that asks fans to “put your hands up in the air” is great for about a minute at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Whether it’s basketball football or any sport, fan support is valuable not only when the game is on the line but throughout the entire contest; and it means a lot to the athletes competing to win on every play.
And that’s exactly what we’ve been doing for the past few years on a consistent basis: winning games.
Not just in football and basketball, but among other sports as well. Northwestern athletics, if you haven’t already noticed, are no longer the laughingstock of the Big Ten. We compete to win championships across all sports on a consistent basis.
The problem is most season ticket holders aren’t used to that yet. Many are from the generation of record-breaking losing streaks and disappointing seasons. In most cases, they still haven’t gotten the message that our sports teams mean business now and into the future.
I’m not saying our fans should show passion for Northwestern by tearing down Illinois’ Alma Mater. I’m saying they should forget about laking the posts and support winning for a change.