Why Syracuse?

[SWC75]

I remember a meeting at work one day where we listened to a speaker tell how to deal sensitively with Native Americans. I asked what word we should use to describe them. I'd looked up the meaning and, basically, "native" means you were born in a place. "Indigenous" means you are from a place: you might not have been born there but you grew up there and who you are is heavily influenced by the place. "Aboriginal" means that your people were the first people in that place. He said it didn't matter: they were interchangeable. I suggested it did. In Australia the term "aborigine" has became a pejorative term due to the attitudes of others but that's the right term. I told the speaker I am native to the Syracuse area and indigenous to it but that i am not aboriginal.

I am Syracuse fan because I am native and indigenous to the Syracuse area and any team that says "Syracuse"on their jersey, (or at elat their letterhead), is our team, representing us. SU football and basketball are especially important because they put us on the map and make us nationally relevant, (or give us a negative image if they are bad). College sports are big in this country because they appeal to markets too small for pro sports. pro sports fans come from places already on the map. they want their teams to live up to the image of the community it and they already have. College fans root for their team to make them know. I call it "existential rooting": we win therefore we are. That's what SU football and basketball can do: tell the world we exist and make us feel important.

 

[newmexicuse]

i fell in love w the campus when i first visited while applying to colleges. had four of the best years of my lfe while a student. even got married in hendricks to my first wife. many many great memories.

in terms of cuse sports, when i was a frosh football was king and floyd was the superstar. when i went home for thanksgiving everybody asked about how great floyd was. i told them he was fabulous, but only our second best back. they said i was nuts. the other back was a kid named csonka !!!!

roys runts got me hooked on the hoops, and, of course there was the nerdy guard who wore glasses !!!

 

[Jeremy L.]

Born and raised in Baldwinsville. My first game growing up was the 1998 Tennessee/Cuse football game at the Dome. From there, I fell in love with the sport of basketball in 1999-2000. Went to games at the Dome, family got season tickets in 2003 for both sports. Been going to games ever since. Now that I live in Charlotte it is so hard trying to get to games (especially in the middle of the week) so I can only get to a handful of games each year. Went to Cuse/UConn earlier this year and will be going to the Georgia Tech game next week.

 

[W'boro'Cuse315]

Born and raised in Baldwinsville. My first game growing up was the 1998 Tennessee/Cuse football game at the Dome. From there, I fell in love with the sport of basketball in 1999-2000. Went to games at the Dome, family got season tickets in 2003 for both sports. Been going to games ever since. Now that I live in Charlotte it is so hard trying to get to games (especially in the middle of the week) so I can only get to a handful of games each year. Went to Cuse/UConn earlier this year and will be going to the Georgia Tech game next week.

Hell of a first game to attend. Hopefully your shorts were long enough to cover your knees

 

[AlaskaSU]

Abe's donuts on Erie, or bumper riding to get to Manley, or maybe I just like Upstate and bad weather?
Maxwell grad and I also have relatives with Cuse degrees.
But above all, eating dust at Manley. Sweet D and Kid Kohls.

 

[stuckinbig11]

I grew up outside of Jamestown, NY back in the day when the Buffalo tv stations broadcast all the Browns games. I was a huge Jim Brown fan. Years later when I opted for ESF to go to college, I found myself at his alma mater and in Archbold Stadium and the Manley Zoo. In those days, ESF students were also SU students; I was on the SU track team and also got SU diplomas (BS and MS). Mostly, I got hooked on the meaning of life -- SU basketball.

 

[OrangeTarheel]

Destroying Kentucky (#4 at the time) at home in 1994 ... Lawrence Moten sinks a late three against Nova at home in January 1995 - those were my earliest and favorite memories. I listened to a lot of games on the radio growin up in the 315 and fondly remember Georgetown as THE rival. When I played basketball with friends I always wanted it to be Georgetown vs Syracuse.

Football - first game ever watched (on TV) was Miami at the Dome in 1992. That wa the epitome of college sports for me. First game in person was against Oklahoma at home next year. We stunk in the first half and I left at halftime. Was cursed to hear the comeback fall short both on the radio and by the roar of theDome below my dorm room. Have not done that since.

 

[orangehomer]

when I was little, my dad told me that if Georgetown won he was going to beat me up.

 

[shermstheman]

Always was a big college hoops guy. Loved Wooden, Walton, David Thompson (and hated Duke). First job out of college brought me to Syracuse and I jumped into Cuse because the fans loved and supported them win or lose. Louie and Bouie were there and things were getting exciting and my passion has increased in every year.

 

[Dave85]

I was at the game when the Pearl hit the half court game winning shot against BC.


How can you not be fan after experience that from the 7th row to the right just behind the basket where it went in! It was by far the best sports moment I've experienced in my life.

 

[Eric15]

I became a Syracuse basketball fan when I was 7 years old watching the 1990 Georgetown game when Thompson got three technicals. I VHS recorded it, and would watch the game over and over and over again like Rainman to the point where I basically had the entire game choreographed in my brain.

My Dad lost his job in Syracuse in 1996, so we moved to Minnesota for a few years where I started high school. All we would do at the lunch table is talk sports, and I didn't have much to work with that year considering (a) the Gophers beat us in football in the weirdest game ever, and (b) we were in the NIT and they had their greatest season ever going to the Final Four. So it just made me hyper-defensive and hardcore of all things Cuse sports.

 

[Jeremy L.]

Hell of a first game to attend. Hopefully your shorts were long enough to cover your knees

Haha I was seven years old so don't remember too much. I do remember it being very loud though. Years later and being able to read stories from it, it was a great game to start out at!