"I don't know whether I'll go," Ellie Chapman '10 said. "I feel like I'm not going to go to a lot of football games this year so I should probably go to the Homecoming game."
The football team's struggles in recent seasons may have contributed to the current ambivalence towards football games. In 2005, the highest attendance at a football game was 6710 spectators. In comparison, during Dartmouth football's last winning season in 1997, the highest attendance was 13,111. As high as that seems, that figure is significantly lower than the number of students who routinely attended games between 1970 and 1984. During that period, Dartmouth football often attracted more than 20,000 fans. The team was so popular that in 1968, Memorial Field's seating capacity was increased from 15,000 to 21,416.
"If we start winning, the stands are going to fill up and school spirit is going to start to increase," Nate Servis '09 and a tailback on the football team said. "People are just sick of going to the games and seeing a loss."
Noah Levinson '09 agreed that the team's recent losses make him less likely to attend games.
"I watched the first game last year," Noah Levinson '09 said. "It put me off when we lost by like 30 points. They went 2-8 last year which was the best they'd done in like 10 years."
But for members of the football team, Homecoming represents a turning point in the season. Last year, the second most highly attended home game was the Homecoming game, which provided the team with one of its two victories.
"Last year we weren't doing that well, like this year, and at Homecoming it starts all over. There's a lot bigger turnout and the guys are all fired up," Servis said.
Despite such encouraging words, many upperclassmen remain skeptical.
"In truth, mostly freshman go to the game," Levinson said.
Freshman often go just to see their classmates run onto the field during halftime, a tradition known as rushing the field, Levinson said. After freshman year the novelty of rushing the field wanes.
"Whether I go really depends on how drunk I get the night before," Levinson said. "If I go it's not to watch football, it's to have a good time. The football game is nowhere near as popular as the bonfire. Everyone goes to the bonfire. You have to go."
Servis hopes that the trend of declining attendance for football games will be reversed in upcoming years.
"Right now we are in the process of improving as a team," Servis said. "If we improve as a team, then the school will improve as fans."
To Chapman, Dartmouth students do have school spirit, they just direct it elsewhere.
"School spirit means going out, painting your faces, cheering really loud, being supportive no matter what," Chapman said. "Here we take such pride in academics that people perhaps overlook all the sports teams."
Levinson agreed and said that school spirit means more than simply measuring attendance at football games.
"School spirit is not going to football games or sports events," Levinson said. "It's being proud of your school, getting involved in your school. This is the truth of the matter at Dartmouth."
