(Brent Schwert)
I almost started to feel some sympathy for the Ripon fans as they were leaving the stadium. It appeared as if the highly offensive fans had left with some newfound respect for our basketball team and university. It was at that point that my friend offered one of them a simple, “Good game” and was replied with multiple expletives and a fight attempt. Somewhere between that and seeing their fans pissing out the back of their bus in the Alexander Gymnasium parking lot told me that these fans were not just trying to intimidate during the game: they were distasteful through and through.
Maybe I just wanted to see a change of heart after a game full of middle fingers and “F.U.” cheers. Maybe after a year and a half at Lawrence I wanted to believe that people like that just did not exist. The integrity of this school, especially with the basketball team, simply would not produce the savage antics of the Ripon cheering section. Yea. Turn to the Lawrence section every time your team scores and convince us of your amazing team. Last I checked the reason for attending sports games is to ridicule the other team’s fans rather than support your own team. And keep chanting “Red Hawk Nation” – I’m sure you’ll take over this country one of these years.
I hope for their sake what we witnessed was a poor sampling of Ripon College. Either way, though, the game reminded me how glad I am to be a Lawrentian. I can’t ever imagine kids from our school acting so idiotically. The game itself was probably my favorite of the year. It was particularly well played by our own Lawrence basketball team and the inanity from the opposing crowd was pathetic but somewhat amusing. The fact that our guys could translate that environment into a tough, focused game only shows what a motivated and classy group of guys they are – and I think I might know, since over half the team lives on the same floor as me. I’d like to finish by saying good luck to the guys this weekend against Carroll! We’ll surely be supporting you, and we don’t need middle fingers to do it.James Antony
