My Thoughts on College Football Tradition

There are very few times when I would consider speaking ill of my Alma Mater, but this might be one of them.  I have always wished that VT had taken the time to have more ways of showing crowd unity.  And no, the “Hokie Pokie” doesn’t count!  While I’m convinced that the entire stadium jumping to “Enter Sandman” is the greatest scene in sports (I get goosebumps every time!); that’s about where it ends as far as crown unity goes.  We clap together (but don’t know the words to our fight song) and we cheer loudly (but only use the words “let’s”, “go” and “Hokies”).  The problem with all this is that I just don’t see the entire crowd involved in the game in the same manner as I’ve seen at other schools.

The reason I bring this up is that this past weekend I had the pleasure of going to Stillwater, Oklahoma.  Home of the first ever Sonic, great BBQ, Kevin Durant’s favorite place to play flag football and of course Oklahoma State University.  I got the chance to experience a homecoming that was way more impressive than anything I have ever experienced of its kind (checkout this site about their "Walkaround" if you haven't heard of it) and an all-around brilliant football showing by the #3 team in the country.  Needless to say, I was thoroughly impressed by both the atmosphere and the team. 

One of the things that I thought was very cool to see was how involved every fan was at “waving the wheat” after a touchdown and singing the alma mater after the end of the game.  I just think it’s really cool to see any scene where over 60,000 people are united in one cause and one purpose.  Even I couldn’t help but to feel loyalty to a school I had never even considered liking until I started dating my current fiancée.  

I don’t in any way think that a Virginia Tech fan is any less loyal or the fan base is any less united.  I just think that the difference is that schools like OKState or even LSU, Clemson or UVA have a half century of football tradition.  They are like your stuck-in-his-ways grandpa, while VT is like a teenager looking for his identity.  I look forward to coming back to VT in 20, 40 and 60 years and seeing how our traditions grow grander and stronger.  It’s just that now, we are just kids with no idea what we want to be when we grow-up.  We have energy and vigor and hopefully that translate into a tradition of unity, loyalty and of course winning!