Last week, we had another “Question of the Week” from Mike Chamernik, and he’s back today with his latest QOTW.
Enjoy!
by Mike Chamernik
I went to DePaul University and I still live in Chicago, so I went to a few men’s and women’s basketball games this month.
The games were fun (the men’s team even won!) but it was really nice to see so many passionate DePaul fans – most of whom are alumni, or parents or family of students or alums.
I bought my tickets on StubHub and wore my Blue Demons T-shirt, but some fans were decked out in merch and sat in booster-level club seats.
What do you do to support your alma mater? Either your college, high school or even grade school. Do you wear apparel, even when not attending games or school functions? Do you display flags, bumper stickers, or anything like that? Do you have ticket packages? Are you a booster or some sort of official supporter? Are you an active member of any alumni groups?
If your child, spouse, parent, or other family member is a proud alum of a school you didn’t attend, do you support that school, too?
The full extent of my sporting support for my alma mater is that if either the men or women make the NCAA basketball championship, I pick ‘em to go irrationally deep. No merch, no clothes, no hats, just very mild March Madness boosterism that has on multiple occasions lost me the office pool.
If you don’t believe, who will?
Fully support the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers. Season Tickets and Tailgate for Football. Attend Basketball, Hockey, Baseball and Softball games. Most of my wardrobe is maroon and gold. Have lots of UofM paraphernalia in my ‘cave’.
There’s no other major D-1 college in Minnesota, right? So I’d imagine the majority of the state is all pulling for the Gophers. There no Auburn/Alabama split
Except in hockey. Then you get Minnesota-Duluth, Minnesota State, St Cloud St, and St Thomas.
And as soon as I hit “post comment” I n said to myself “arrgh, forgot Bemidji State!”
Virginia. I do have a bunch of window (not bumper) stickers. I’m a booster for field hockey and women’s soccer. (FH is actually the program I have the most fun supporting and went to three games last season for the first time.) By virtue of being a booster, I have men’s basketball season tickets because as a basic rule everybody who has them is a booster for something, but even with that there’s still a waitlist. When I got the opportunity to get on the waitlist, I figured it would be for years or something but it was actually only for a week.
Of course I also write Uni Watch articles about them, mostly because Phil always asks me if I want to and I’m not going to say no.
I need to watch field hockey
I do have a couple of shirts for my college alma mater, the Youngstown State Penguins. I actually wore them today as a show of support for being in the Horizon League finals. I have been to a couple of basketball games over the last few years, but usually I grab a schedule early in the year, say we are going to go to games (basketball or football) and then never really make it to any.
Love the YSU name and penguin logo
Same here. I’m an Akron alum and I’d have no problems wearing the logo and colors of my school’s former rival.
I want to be a more supportive alum, but they make it so difficult at times. Especially aesthetically. Plus, Akron and nearby Kent State could leap from mid-majors to basketball powerhouses if they dropped football or went down to FCS and focused more on hoops. But no. And Akron is always under construction, so getting to the stadium or arena is a chore.
Both schools really should consider building a multipurpose barn like the two in Idaho: the Kibbie Dome
link
and the Holt Arena.
link
link
There’s a booming area right off of I-76, halfway between the two schools, which would be a perfect place for a shared facility.
As far as repping my school, I’ve had a couple of Zips shirts, and two cars ago I had a Zips bumper sticker. Don’t have any now. I’m in the Dr. Huxtable/Henry Rush school of wearing apparel from a variety of different schools, just because I like the way they look. Aesthetically, Akron just doesn’t stack up to the other things I see in the thrift stores.
Zips is also a fantastic name
Is the cheer still “Akron zips, he’ll ya”
Our school has “Mission Monday” where teachers are asked to wear shirts to support students entering college, career, or military after high school, so I wear my little D-II college’s shirts proudly 3 out of 4 weeks typically (the other week is my Skills USA t shirt for vocational schools).
My alma mater is Towson University. Aside from lacrosse, Towson doesn’t have a huge sports profile, so I’ve always been more dedicated to University of Maryland, where 2 of my siblings and many of my friends went. I have some apparel – both a hat and t-shirt with “Fear the Turtle.” I will occasionally watch football games if they’re shown here in Virginia. I used to be much more inclined to watch both the men’s and women’s b-ball teams during March Madness, but both teams have a tendency to lose earlier than they should, based on how they’re seeded, and the disappointment got to be too much for me.
I get confused when I see it still called Towson State
The two countries I’ve attended university in (Scotland and Canada) don’t have anywhere close to the culture of school pride you see in the US. I tend to identify with and talk about my time in Scotland much more, likely because it was so exciting and was generally a positive experience. It doesn’t help that my university in Toronto changed its name soon after I graduated.
With that being said, I still live relatively close to the high school I went to, many of my closest friends went there, and it has a particular reputation within Toronto, so I definitely identify as a Leasider at heart.
I have never been to an athletic event since leaving any of the schools I mentioned, but I am part of a volunteer group for alumni in Canada trying to maintain connections with my Scottish university. And despite owning merch and rocking jerseys for all of my professional teams, I don’t own anything from my alma maters.
The US college sports system must be profoundly weird to the rest of the world
It absolutely is. I’ve learned to keep my mouth shut when it seeps into UW.
I mentioned in another comment that (for some universities in Canada) there is a deep affiliation but its not tied to sports. Queens and Western and STFx spring to mind immediately as having deep connections with the alumni that are not tied to sports.
St. FX is definitely number one for that. It certainly looks like a cult from the outside looking in…
Queens is known for networking circles post-graduation for sure, and it certainly has a reputation for attracting a certain crown (for better or for worse).
I think Western’s location might contribute to it – not much around there other than the school, and there are no other major schools competing for attention.
Well, obviously I have a bunch of shirts and hats and all kinds of collectibles for all the old Southwest Conference teams. I root for all (at varying times) – it is complicated having attended two of those schools. And I try to make a couple or at least one SWC matchup football game a year. At times I have been a Red Raider Club donor. For football, I usually wear a shirt or hat even when watching at home if it is an important game. There are lucky shirts (but sometimes I need to buy a new one with an unblemished record) and if it is going south, I might change. My mom asked me if I really thought that did anything and I said “no, of course not, but I am damn sure not gonna risk it”.
As for march madness, all in. I usually have two brackets: one has Texas Tech (and some other old SWC teams) going further than I expect, and a more realistic one.
2019 must’ve been a dream year for you
I am a proud two-time (bachelor’s and master’s) alumnus of West Virginia University! I have plenty of gear – shirts, sweatshirts, jackets, caps, socks, gym shorts … and I also have an emblem on the back of my car and a WVU wall in my basement. I go to football games when I can, and a bunch of my college friends and I get together in Morgantown every year for either a football game or basketball game. My son and his wife both work at Duke, so I occasionally wear Duke sweatshirts, too.
I have a sweatshirt and tie for one college and a hat for the other. For the Commanders, I have a closet full of team issued clothing and hats.
Attended a mid-major school Western Michigan University. I only pay attention and try to find radio station when team makes ncaa tournament for basketball, hockey, or soccer which is rare. Unfortunately I have outgrown my dinning hall employee shirt!
I got my undergrad at UTSA and my wife went to Texas State. We are considered rivals and always try to watch games when they play each other. Went to both games in the Alamodome when UTSA football won back to back conference championships a few years back. On college day at school we’ll put the kids in UTSA and Texas State gear. I got my masters from UTRGV which is located in the current city I live in and have taken the kids to a few baseball games this season which have been a lot of fun as they have a current record of 11-2!
UTSA has a great nickname and logo. And I like that they play in the Alamodome
Texas has so many notable college football programs (duh, it’s Texas). I’m a little annoyed they’re all in different conferences, it feels like
Penn State alum. I do it all, have it all. Season tickets, all the shirts and hats and jackets (even a few helmets I’ve built), alumni license plate on the car, member of the Baltimore alumni chapter, etc etc. Of course, my parents (and sister) are all alums too, so I never really had a choice growing up. Wouldn’t have it any other way.
I wonder what the power rankings of “most passionate alum base” is? Penn State is top 10. I guess the Ivies are up there. Duke. Michigan! Around here it’s Illinois.
Don’t confuse “alumni base” with “followers”. In Michigan, there are “Walmart Wolverines”, whose only connection with the school is recognizing and purchasing the merch at said super-store.
Love the QOTW concept. Too bad it drifts off during the replys.
“Walmart Wolverins” ha! That’s right up there with “subway alumni” and “dirt road alumni”
There isn’t a name for Pennsylvanians who follow the Nittany Lions, but probably should be.
I have a small window decal on my car and I try to make it down for a game each year. And I gave a little money to a NIL-adjacent organization last year. I care deeply about them and stress about them as sports fans tend to do (particularly these days with all the conference, transfers, etc. uncertainty), but it’s not like I’m always wearing merch or anything like that. I do have an ungodly number of t-shirts from when I attended there, though.
As a young alumnus, I went to nearly every Penn State home football game.
I regularly wore the gear because I rally like blue, loved the University, etc. Plus, you could get cheap Penn State gear in State College.
Mortgage and kids slowed all of that down and the complete mishandling of the Jerry Sandusky crimes had me pulling back quite a bit. The embarrassing alumni who think that Paterno and by extension, themselves were the “victims” really turned me off.
I’ve gotten more into the football again because it’s one of the ways my college friends stay connected. I miss tailgating with them more than being in the stadium.
I’ve also gotten into hockey when I can actually watch it. They mens team played in DC this season, so I went in person.
Plus, I made “Penn State” skiing and broomball helmets- linked in thr ticker a ways back.
My undergrad school (UCSC) was a true hippie college with people walking barefoot to class. So not much in the way of sports. But its mascot does have a minor claim to fame for 1) Being unusual and 2) Part of a shirt that John Travolta’s character wore in Pulp Fiction: link. Don’t know what it’s like now, but when I was going there, the “Pulp Fiction shirt” was *the* shirt to buy at the bookstore. I have a t-shirt and long-sleeved crewneck version.
The school I went to grad school for is a bit more well-known (SJSU) thanks to its size, location, and some bowl appearances over the years, though it’s still not a sports powerhouse like the SEC or the B1G, etc. It’s the one I’m most involved with: I have a cap, hoodie, t-shirt, booster shirts, and I’m on the board for one of the alumni groups.
The best part is that both these schools and my high school’s official colors are blue and athletic gold, which makes showing school spirit much easier!
The shirt in Pulp Fiction is a classic
very fascinating, thank you. I always thought sjsu football uniforms are beautiful
Good answers, everyone!
I kinda like running across super enthusiastic alumni of whatever schools. DePaul is mostly a commuter school and there’s really not a sense of campus, and the hoops team has been bad for 20 years now, so there’s not much Blue Demon passion. I get jealous of people who went to other schools.
I have merch from all three schools I attended although I’ve grown a bit big to fit in some of the older stuff unfortunately. I’m only localish to the most recent one and since I don’t do a ton on campus I don’t wear that merch too often since I can never remember how the cheer goes and I don’t want to embarrass myself.
I went to the University of North Carolina, and if you ever peek into my wardrobe, you’d think I was either sponsored by the Tar Heels or I lost a bet and now must live in their colors forever. My closet is a full-blown shrine to those Carolina blues: old tees, sweatshirts that have seen better days, and ball caps that are starting to smell like “true fan” (i.e., they’ve been worn into the ground). And yes, I do have a few newer ones my kids picked out for me—bless their hearts, they think I need a “style upgrade” every decade or so. (Being a dad means I’ve mastered the art of never buying clothes. If it’s not a free T-shirt from a work event or a gift from my kids, it’s not making it past the front door.)
Now, my office? Oh, it’s a Tar Heel temple. Degrees on the walls, photos of me with some famous alumni—okay, maybe a couple of them were just casual acquaintances, but we’ve exchanged eye contact in a hallway or two. I’m the kind of guy who follows all the Tar Heel teams like it’s my second job. Let’s be real here: I check their website at least three times a week, because if there’s one thing I do well, it’s made sure I know when the next game is—whether I can make it. The truth is, I try to go to a few games every year, but this depends entirely on where I am in the world or if their teams happen to be playing close enough for me to pretend, I’m not an obsessive fan. Of course, if it’s on TV, you bet your sweet blue I’m watching.
And as any dad worth his weight in college swag would do, I’ve got a collection of sweatshirts, hats, and tees from my kids’ schools. They have to know I support their choices, even if it means I look like I’m wearing a catalog for every university except the one that truly matters. I’ve got their schools’ logos proudly displayed, in our home and in my office. Sure, it might seem a little confusing to outsiders, but hey, I’m just trying to look supportive.
Now, here’s where it gets juicy. My wife went to Duke. Yes, that Duke. The one with the strange blue. And while I have the utmost respect for her, a true-Blue Devil fan in my midst, I have never once let that abomination of a color touch my skin or wear a hat. Nope. Not once. It’s a line I refuse to cross, like a man sworn never to wear socks with sandals. We’ve had some fun (and occasionally lopsided) bets over the years—she’s on her high horse this year and has a big fever of March Madness this year — but I’ll be damned if I let a Duke logo anywhere near my side of the closet as she is respectfully having the same feelings. No matter how many times she triumphs in these bets, no Duke gear is ever sneaking in. And honestly? I guess little she knows I’ll always keep winning by wearing my Carolina gear with pride.
Love this so much. It helps that UNC is “cool” and the teams are usually good, in all sports. Like there was a running joke in the last season of “Eastbound & Down” where the guy was a Wake Forest superfan and he looked dorky.
Also — Carolina blue is beautiful and I love the argyle motif. Just good fashion.
Yeah you can’t wear Duke stuff. It really would be an affront to your identity, in a way
Ah, the good ol’ days of college basketball, where the stands were as much a circus as the game itself. I met my wife during the early days of what we now lovingly call the “Cameron Crazies.” It was a time when the bleachers weren’t just packed with fans; they were filled with sweaty, smelly hyped-up students who had taken ‘school spirit’ to absurd levels and that’s perfectly fine.
Now, enter me: just a regular college kid, living for the free stuff (aren’t we all?). My roommate’s dad—let’s call him “The Ticket Fairy”—suddenly bestows upon us two golden tickets. “Go,” he says, “sit as close to the action as possible.” And naturally, when you’re a broke college student and someone says the magic word “free,” you don’t hesitate. You leap.
So, we donned our stunning “heavenly blues” (cue the eye roll), took our seats right in the middle of the madness, and braced ourselves for an evening of popcorn showers, flying nachos, and possibly some unidentifiable sticky substances. And let’s be real, if you didn’t get hit with something, you weren’t sitting close enough. The stands were basically a war zone, and we were two very easy targets.
But we didn’t flinch. We stood strong—confident like the true, loyal fans we were—believing in our team, enduring the barrage of snack missiles, and chanting in unison as if our lives depended on it. And, of course, when the good guys pulled off the win, the place erupted in pure, unadulterated mayhem and then fell silent.
That’s when it happened. As we were celebrating our victory, I looked up to see her—bold, fearless, and… holding a popcorn box? She marched right over, handed me the box with a twinkle in her eye, and there it was: a note with her number scrawled on it. I would love to tell you what the note said, but let’s just say it probably isn’t appropriate for the under-18 crowd. We’ll just leave it at “it was spicy and bold.”
And yes, folks, that note—and her number—has been framed and sits proudly on my dresser to this day. A daily reminder that sometimes, the right gear, a little courage, and a whole lot of popcorn can change your life.
So, here’s my advice: wear your gear proudly, stand strong through the chaos, and who knows? You might just score the ultimate victory. And no, I’m not talking about the game.
I support both of my alma maters thoroughly. Shirts, hats sweatshirts.
But as was pointed out above, varsity sports isn’t as big a deal in Canada, the support is more of the university and the faculties / departments we graduated from. Our alumni network is very deep (both universities), we have lots of events and do lots of things, but the affiliation is not tied to sports teams.
I went to Illinois Institute of Technology (also in Chicago), which is not known for its athletics. They now play baseball and basketball in Division III, but when I went there they were just in the NAIA and weren’t very good at that. I never went to a game. I used to have an IIT t-shirt, but when it wore out I didn’t replace it. So, there’s the other side of the story for you.
Ha well I’m sure you have a good STEM job
I grew up near Ohio State and did my first two undergrad years there, then transferred to a D3. Also have 2 different grad schools. And have been employed at yet another school (Colorado) for nearly 30 years. So I have loyalties all over the place.
I occasionally wear t-shirts from OSU and CU, but that’s about it. I have been wearing my OSU shirt to the gym rather more frequently in the last couple of months, for obvious reasons. :-)
I had a cousin, now deceased, who was born and raised in Columbus and was a long-time employee of OSU, although not an alum. He made it a point of pride never to leave the house without some OSU article on, whether a hat, shirt, jacket, pin, belt buckle, or what have you.
I am a graduate of Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, Kentucky.
My son is also a graduate from EKU as my mother, grandmother and both of her sisters were also EKU graduates. My son and I wear Colonels apparel and try and catch a football game in Richmond from time to time and we follow the men’s hockey team.
My father graduated from Notre Dame and we follow them closer than anybody else. I think we have more ND garb than anything else. I guess because it is more available and there is more of a selection.
We live in suburban Cincinnati so we stay in the loop.
Your whole family going to the same school, that has to be special
As a graduate of the University of Washington who has since moved to Wisconsin, I’m not able to go to games much anymore (although being in the Big 18 now helps). I still wear Huskies merch on a very regular basis, especially on game days, and obnoxiously tell people every chance I get that my favorite color is purple and gold.
I also got an Alaskan Malamute and named him after former Huskies quarterback Marques Tuiasosopo.
You’re all Big Ten now! Who would’ve saw that coming
I went to a football-first school where hoops are an afterthought. My kid went to a basketball power in a different conference so I have no problem going all-in for both schools equally. And as you might expect for someone who visits this site daily, I’ve accumulated a lot of gear for both schools over the years and wear them proudly.
Hmm. Penn State and Villanova?
Let me try again…my response to Mike posted in the wrong spot. I’m from a Notre Dame/Marquette family…since ND left the Big East, there’s no conflict.
I went to Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, one of the premiere public high schools in Baltimore. I have alumni licence plates: link . I also wear t-shirts and sweatshirts. My undergrad and graduate school is an online school (American Military University, where the current nominee for Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff went as well), but because I don’t like their branding, I haven’t purchased any merch.
Side note: I want to visit Baltimore more than any other US city. The food is intriguing: pit beef, crab cakes, Berger cookies.
You know it
link
Notre Dame/Marquette
I wear hats and t-shirts/hoodies from UNLV (where I got my bachelor’s) and Utah State (my father and son are both alums). I don’t own any merch for Idaho State (my grad school) but I do contribute to a scholarship fund there. I try to get to a UNLV basketball game when they come to Boise where I now live, but other than that don’t have much opportunity to see games.
I’m jealous of students who attend UNLV. Feels like a nonstop party.
Go to a few of my university alma matter’s (Lakehead Thunderwolves) hockey games every season. Have some of their hockey jerseys, a scarf, a toque, and a couple t-shirts.
My primary school no longer exists as it was, but I have a bookmark from an anniversary of it. I did have a t-shirt of my junior high, but I outgrew that decades ago – they changed from an Indian head logo and a team name of Warriors to Wolves. I have at best mixed feeling about the main high school I went to and own nothing of theirs. I had the hockey jersey of the high school I attended for my last 1/2 year and played hockey for, but at one point I gave that to my brother.