• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Does the "Wal-Mart Wolverine" effect exist in other states?

D

Daosx

Captain
Captain
To clarify what I mean a Wal-Mart Wolverine is a fan of the University of Michigan football program who did not attend the University of Michigan, nor do they have any relatives that went there. If they went to college, it was either community college, Wayne State, or a directional school (Eastern, Central, Western, Northern). And that's all well and good. There's nothing wrong with going to those schools and liking UoM. The problem is that a lot of these people ACT as though they have a degree from UoM.
I'm a Michigan State grad and there's a saying here in Michigan. Either you went to Michigan State, or you're a Michigan fan. I have respect for people who graduate from UoM. I wouldn't have wanted to go there (great education, I don't like the campus or the city) but it is one of the nations premeinit universties. However, there's nothing more pathetic than hearing someone who dropped out of community college asking, upon finding out I'm a Spartan, "Whatsa matter, couldn't get into MICHIGAN??" Or hearing a Eastern Michigan alum call into a sports talk radio station and talk about how much better an education you get at UoM than at State. It breeds resentment. It really does.
I understand rooting for a winner, and I'm not one of the people who thinks you can't root for a college program if you didn't go there. But in the name of Hugh Duffy Daugherty, YOU DIDN'T GO THERE. Don't act like you have a degree from there.
That's why I take so much pleasure in Michigan being down this year. The trailer parks are quiet, and Wal-Mart sales are down to 10 year lows.

My question is, does this exist in other states? Any Cal grads have similar experiences? Auburn grads?

On a side note, I'll make a deal with Penn State fans here. Kick the crap our of UoM. Beat them senseless. Hang 60 on them. In return, we Spartans will win out and go into our season ending game with a great ranking so that when you beat us, it will legitamize you're national title aspirations, and still allow us to go to the Rose Bowl. Everyone wins.
 
It's practically a law in Nebraska that you must be a Cornhusker regardless of where you went to school.

But we only have one state university so there aren't really a lot of other options.
 
Growing up in the Springfield/Hartford area, I've noticed more Huskies (as in University of Connecticut) fanatics around Hartford than Minutemen fanatics up in around Springfield. But I don't think its' like that back home. We have have a good handful of good schools in Western Massachusetts- UMASS naturally, Amherst College, Smith College, Mt. Holyoke, and other few smaller colleges.
 
Don't you have something better to do than worry about who other people are rooting for? It's just a team, who cares.
 
^No. The OP is talking about people who "look down" at him (and other people)for attending State (or other schools) instead of University of Michigan when they didn't even go to college themselves. Those people( with no or very little education; at a small community college) apparently decide that rooting for University of Michigan sports makes one better than people who actually got an education at Michigan State.

I've seen that kind of thing in Cincinnati, when many sport fans got upset about the treatment the president of the university gave to a former men basketball head coach, with rallies, protests and even a "red carpet" gala honoring him. But many other academic and research programs were axed or cut down, with very little attention. I thought it was very sad that an outgoing coach would get star treatment when a professor or a researcher who was vital to the university as well as inspired dozens of students over the years wouldn't be even noticed by the media if he lost his job the same way the coach was.
 
Daosx said:
On a side note, I'll make a deal with Penn State fans here. Kick the crap our of UoM. Beat them senseless. Hang 60 on them. In return, we Spartans will win out and go into our season ending game with a great ranking so that when you beat us, it will legitamize you're national title aspirations, and still allow us to go to the Rose Bowl. Everyone wins.
Click to expand...

Maybe next year ;)



But as to your question, yeah that effect is alive and well all over the country. I know of guys at work who wear USC gear, and they graduated from eastern schools such as Cornell. Sometimes it depends on the size of the school's alumni base. Larger schools like Texas, Ohio State and Florida can have people wearing their gear just because they're spread out all over the country
 
Well if it's any consolation, the Michigan football coach (who cost the school an arm and a leg to get) was given the "vote of confidence" in just his first season. So he'll be out the door soon. :)
 
Florida here. The closest we had here was University of Florida I suppose. But there was other successful Florida teams (football) at the time too like Florida State and University of Miami so I don't think any one school ever become the favorite for the whole state.

I guess I was a "Wal-Mart Hurricane" but only becouse my brother liked them and I was young and didn't know any better....;)

Anyway not much of a college football fan anymore but if I do start paying attention to it again I will probably root for the Bulls. The school is actually near by and I do know many people who whent there.
 
I wonder how many people grew up on one side of an in-state rivalry -- hating one college, loving the other -- but the hated school was the only one that would accept him or her. :lol:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top