I'm an absolute sports junkie. If I weren't, I wouldn't be writing this column. I also happen to be the son of a Dartmouth-educated father, whose first stuffed animal was a teddy bear with a Dartmouth green sweater with a large white D on it (originally enough, I named him "D-Bear.") Unlike most people out there, I was brought up looking for Dartmouth football/basketball scores on the ESPN crawl at the bottom of the television. So it was only natural that once I ended up here I would attend every football game. But I understand why people wouldn't.
I have heard complaints about the attendance of Dartmouth students at the College's sporting events. I understand these complaints, especially from athletes. A good crowd pumps teams up and gives them a great home advantage. Moreover, it is never enjoyable to see a student body apathetic to many of their own school's games.
Sometimes I wonder if these complaints aren't the result of unfair and unrealistic expectations. First off, Dartmouth is a small school, so as a result, it is difficult to get caught up in the excitement over games if you're not predisposed to it. Large state schools do not have this problem, since with student bodies of 15,000 or more have little trouble filling the stands with raucous crowds that feed off of each other.
Additionally, since very few people at Dartmouth grew up rooting for the Big Green, there is less of a culture surrounding Dartmouth athletics than at a school where many students are local and have longer-standing connections with the teams. Moreover, many students already have college athletic affiliations from back home (my own personal one being Boston College), so if forced to choose between watching a Dartmouth football game or their own home team's game, many would choose the latter.
There is also the problem of the quality of our athletic programs. The hockey games are well attended, but those teams are among the best in the nation and play nationally ranked opponents. In the other marquee sports, we play in a second tier athletic conference where many times the results within that conference are not very good. There are plenty of reasons for Dartmouth students, even those who are sports fans, not to come to games.
And I haven't mentioned the biggest of all reasons: work. Work keeps us all constantly busy, and sometimes sparing three hours on a Saturday afternoon just isn't feasible.
After my last column about the Dartmoose, I received a BlitzMail message that, among other things, said that "Dartmouth's biggest problem is a body of students that is self-centered and apathetic about the quarter of their peers that represent them year in and year out in athletics." I think this is a misguided view. We shouldn't force people who don't like football to go to football games any more than we should force people who don't like a cappella to go to a cappella concerts or force people who don't like art to go to an exhibition at the Hood.
There was a time where there was greater support for Dartmouth sports, a time where our football team would draw so many fans that Memorial Field couldn't hold them all (and instead our games with Harvard were played every year down in Cambridge). But that was a very different time. Ivy League football was still viable on a national level, and Dartmouth was a dominant football power. The population of the student body was all male, and I don't mean that in a sexist way, but in the way that 3,500 men with no women around will be rowdier.
Those who go out and support Dartmouth athletics, yelling and screaming at sporting events, deserve all the credit in the world. Our cheerleaders do a fantastic job (and are growing in numbers at an exponential rate) and we do have a small group of hardcore fans that really get into the action. While we want better attendance at sporting events, and I will continue to do my best to talk people into going, I also don't fault them for staying at home.
Go Big Green and steamroll the Lions this Saturday. If you haven't been to a football game yet, here's your chance. This is the one weekend when excuses aren't valid. It's Homecoming.
