Anyone was brainwashed to like a certain university (athletics wise in particular) from your folks growing up,but eventually tapered off?
Posted by DarinCN@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 61 comments
UCLA for me ( but I still feel compelled to pull for them!)
Perfect_Hour_7539@reddit
My father tried to make me a UF fan (and I was until I was 18-ish). But I ended up getting my masters from FSU, as they offered it online (and UF did not). So now, we have a friendly competition at holidays (although I don’t follow any type of sport. It’s more him ribbing me about “almost being a Gator” and me shaking my head, gesturing with my fork and saying “Go Noles! Do the sport thing!” )
AotKT@reddit
My partner's family lives southwest of Tallahassee and is almost evenly split between UF and FSU fans, though not a single one of them have gone to university. It makes for lively watch parties when they play each other. And yes, I'm in the background yelling GO SPORTSBALL!
usernames_suck_ok@reddit
They tried when I was applying to colleges to get me with the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, because that was around the time they'd won the national title in football. But I visited the campus and saw half my high school there and then other people I'd known since Kindergarten, too, and I knew there was no fucking way. Went to a DIII school in another state that no one cares about except academically.
Then I enrolled at Michigan for law school, and now I am the one who has my parents brainwashed. They mostly don't give a fuck about UTK anymore, and my mother was more upset than I was yesterday about how badly Michigan played/coached in the rivalry loss to Ohio State.
AotKT@reddit
My BFF and I couldn't care less about sportsball but she's a Gator and I live in eastern TN. Every once in a while I'll text her "GO VOLS!" just to get the middle finger emoji back from her.
DarinCN@reddit (OP)
Impressive! I’m proud of my fellow xennials who actually gave 100 percent and you got your folks to change!
vajrasana@reddit
O-H!
StillhasaWiiU@reddit
Not me, but my friends from the midwest all were like this.
HappyCoconutty@reddit
My parents, siblings, spouse and I all attended UT Austin cause it was local. I don’t really care where my kids go as long as it is a good university and I don’t showcase my school from 2 decades ago as part of my identity.
But there are Texas A&M families in my new city that go out of their way to talk shit about UT to us. They even tell their kids at the playground to chant and yell things at my kids (who are very confused by the sudden aggression by another dad). It made me finally research things last year and I found out that A&M centers their entire identity around us, but they are not even on our radar. I had no idea their fight song was about us and they sing it when they play other teams.
These Aggie families here are very cultish about it. Their young kids are dragged to midnight yell and made to harass other kids. It is truly brainwashing and hella weird.
Outrageous_Picture39@reddit
And then everybody clapped.
HappyCoconutty@reddit
Found the Aggie! Tough weekend for you, huh bud?
DarinCN@reddit (OP)
Ok definitely those people need to get a life!
TrustAffectionate966@reddit
No. I went to UC San Diego. It was known as a nerdy school for STEM degrees with zero athletics. The biggest teams at that time were badminton and slosh ball.
🧉🦄
DarinCN@reddit (OP)
Badminton is fun! Good for you to pursue education
instant_ramen_chef@reddit
I grew up super catholic. Mom taught catechism. One priest was a Notre Dame alumni. He would always wear an ND pin, and every week during football season, he would add a prayer for ND players in his services. We were nowhere near Indiana. But I rooted for ND football. I even knew the lyrics to the ND Victory March.
30 years later, I am a fan of USC football. But I still quietly root for the Irish as tribute to Father Bernard.
elcheapodeluxe@reddit
More broadly I totally failed to pick up the fervent identity defining loyalty that anyone has to sportsball in general.
DarinCN@reddit (OP)
Any college aspirations at the turn of the century?
elcheapodeluxe@reddit
I definitely didn't choose my university for any of the sportsball programs
Rubik842@reddit
It's just not a thing outside the US. I think it's propaganda receptiveness training.
Neither-Mycologist77@reddit
My parents both graduated from Penn State during its football "glory years" and were crazy about PSU football.
Yeah, I moved away from that.
DarinCN@reddit (OP)
I got to do it… What would Jerry Sandusky say the best thing about twenty-eight year olds? There’s 20 of them (ban me)
GenghisConnieChung@reddit
I watched my dad slowly come to hate the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 80’s after having been a reasonably big fan in his youth in the 50’s and 60’s when they could still win a cup.
I didn’t really get into watching hockey until my late teens when I started hanging out with friends who were die hard Leafs fans. This was during the Mats Sundin era when they had a legitimate shot and were exciting to watch. I slowly learned the disappointment I’d watched my dad develop over a decade earlier as they came upmarket year after year. After that team got broken up they turned to such utter shit that I lost interest for a long time.
My son is now a Leafs fan and I get to watch him come to understand that same pain of being their one of their fans through the thoroughly disappointing Auston Matthews era. He didn’t get to watch me go through it though, so I’ve tried to prepare him for it mentally without completely crushing his hopes of them ever winning more than a handful of playoff games.
singleguy79@reddit
No, but then I never developed a taste for sports.
TheRealTheSpinZone@reddit
Growing up in L.A. but being born in South Africa (moved to L.A. at 4 months old) my parents had zero care about college teams BUT almost ALL my friends parents did and it was a constant battle of UCLA vs USC.
Throw-away17465@reddit
My parents are very “meh” about both sports and universities. I chose a smaller state school that gave up its (winning) football team to invest more in academics. Students and alumni didn’t care much for football either so it was an easy choice.
Nicfromnewgirl@reddit
Yes but never wavered. Still a die hard Udub fan. Went to the Rose Bowls early 90’s
Bird_Herder@reddit
I grew up a UW fan since I spent the first 8 years of my life in the Seattle area and my uncle was a fan. I was accepted to and was planning on attending UW until I got a letter from WSU saying that I had been selected for a single dorm room. Having a roommate was my biggest fear about going to college and I immediately accepted. On orientation weekend they had us sing the fight song about a dozen times a day. I went from a UW fan to Huck the Fuskies pretty quickly.
Throw-away17465@reddit
So you majored in beer bong with a minor in coke
DarinCN@reddit (OP)
Btw were these loft mates xennials or a bit too young?
rawonionbreath@reddit
Washington?
Twanlx2000@reddit
I grew up 20 minutes from South Bend, so everyone either rooted for Notre Dame regardless of whether they went there, or against them because the local fans thought they were something special. My dad had a perpetual chip on his shoulder, so we were the latter.
We grew up rooting for the Chicago pro teams (except for the Cubs for the same reason as ND) and plenty of Indiana University basketball. Everything pretty much peaked in the late 80s/early 90s, so I watched a lot of bad sports into adulthood. I pretty much stopped caring after I got married in my mid-30s, but know enough to hold a conversation when I travel to see family.
There’s this weird dynamic in northern IN where people can be fans of ND football and one of Purdue/Indiana basketball at the same time. It’s been predictably obnoxious to see how many of the ND/IU sort are suddenly IU football fans this season.
DarinCN@reddit (OP)
So white Sox fans? I pull for Iowa to win their games cuz I lived there for 8 years- but ucla still trumps them- my kids are attending Nevada and I lived out here for 30 years- I’m trying to rewire my brain to switch to Nevada
Twanlx2000@reddit
Yeah, the Sox are the only team I still actively follow, which is a labor of love 😬
DarinCN@reddit (OP)
Trying times!
aweedl@reddit
The U.S. is extremely weird with this stuff.
University sports are not much of a thing here in Canada. They exist, but no one really gives a shit.
Also, unless you’re taking some specialized program they only exists in a certain location, most people here just go to post-secondary school in the city they already live in (assuming they’re not rural, in which case they would just go to the closest city that has a university.
The American concept of ‘going away to college’ is so alien to me. It’s been almost 25 years since I’ve been a post-secondary student but it all that time, I know a grand total of ONE person who actually lived in a dorm at a university. Meanwhile American movies make it seem like something that is almost universally done.
Gravy_Sommelier@reddit
I know plenty of people who went to post secondary somewhere else, but I have yet to meet an adult in Canada who holds any sort of ongoing loyalty to a college. The idea of being a fan of a school that you didn't even go to is even more baffling to me.
aweedl@reddit
I guess it depends on where you’re from. I’m in Winnipeg, and we have the University of Winnipeg, University of Manitoba, Red River College, St. Boniface College, and a bunch of smaller trade schools.
The vast majority of people I went to high school with (and, again, this is 25 years ago) went to one of those options rather than moving across the country. It seems like that kind of thing is way more prevalent in the States (if pop culture is to be believed).
Pale-Weather-2328@reddit
no I have the opposite. My parents were not sports watching people at all (unless it was the olympics) nor cared at all and we played sports but the idea of going to a game, watching it on TV, or going to a sports watching party? We were out at museums, hiking, fishing, playing music and watching it, going to the theater, cooking. I had to learn to watch sports. lol
WhiskyStandard@reddit
Same, except I failed at learning to watch sports.
I was surprised to be sharing an elevator with my CEO and a bunch of the sales bros. He said, “how about you, WhiskyStandard: who are you rooting for tonight?”
I said “oh, I just hope they all have a good time. What sport are we talking about?”
“Ha! Basketball.”
“Oh, well if I were to follow a sport, basketball very well could be one of them…” Stepping out of the elevator: “At least it’s not football!”
Doors close. Then I remember that he’s friends with some NFL coach, manager, or owner who he just had speak at an all hands meeting.
Pale-Weather-2328@reddit
I can play along, but there’s 101 things I’d rather be doing to be honest
DarinCN@reddit (OP)
As in as a kid I really wanted to go to ucla, but high school kind of didn’t help. Collegiate sports in particular I was going for
SensitiveArtist@reddit
My mom is a huge Virginia Tech fan. She tried to get all of us kids to go there, but only my older brother did so. I don't watch sports aside from Olympic Curling so football is the farthest thing from my mind.
DookieMcDookface@reddit
For some reason I loved Notre Dame football growing up. Wasn’t catholic. Didn’t go there. Not from the Midwest.
Now that I’m an old man in his 40s, I’m not a fan of theirs anymore but I still kinda root for them. That said they need to stop dicking around and join a conference in football.
AppropriateAmoeba406@reddit
My dad didn’t give a shit about college ball. Thankfully.
DarinCN@reddit (OP)
So you weren’t pressured in attending a college?
AppropriateAmoeba406@reddit
No. They wanted me to go to college. They didn’t care where.
I ended up at FSU during the Bobby Bowden years. My parents still didn’t care about college football.
More-read-than-eddit@reddit
Michigan (basically every extended family member is an alum). Suffered through many rose bowl defeats as a child and now I no longer even pretend to care, doesn’t even feel like part of a university so much as a professional sports team that licenses the colors.
Shortbus_Playboy@reddit
Grew up an Ohio State football fan because both parents graduated from there. Got accepted there, chose a different university because I was going for school and not football fandom, lol.
Still a die-hard Bucks fan, though.
Deep-Interest9947@reddit
No, because my mom was (and continues to be) overly pushy and as a result I disliked anything she wanted me to like.
DarinCN@reddit (OP)
Did it affect attending college?
Deep-Interest9947@reddit
I went to college. But it wasn’t in any of her top choices for me. Wasn’t even n any of my top choices either though because she forbid me from those.
DarinCN@reddit (OP)
Good for you though- I didn’t accomplish poo in college
TransportationOk657@reddit
My dad went to the U of MN. Despite being a pitcher for the Gophers, he was never into any college sports while I was growing up (he watched a lot of NFL, MLB and NHL though), nor did he display any kind of loyalty or favoritism toward the school and alumni.
With that said, I really liked the football uniforms, logo and mascot of Notre Dame in my youth (around '94). I even got a Notre Dame Starter jacket! But, like my dad, I didn't follow college sports (I also preferred the pros), and never dreamt of attending there, so it wore off after a couple of years.
DarinCN@reddit (OP)
Did you attend a college?
TransportationOk657@reddit
I did. I also went to the U of MN, but not because my dad went there. I went to college later in life than most (late 20s) and already had a family to care for. It was a good school and close enough to drive to daily.
DarinCN@reddit (OP)
Good for you!
AlchemistMustang@reddit
Notre Dame. Nana liked them because she came over to the States after the war and they are the Fighting Irish. No familial connections at all. I went to UF. So, for me it is the Gators. But I still have a soft spot for them since we have no love for FSU.
DarinCN@reddit (OP)
Good for you- I attended CC- but no accomplishment
gh0st-Account5858@reddit
My family is catholic and my dad loved Notre Dame. I still pull for them, but they aren't my team.
DarinCN@reddit (OP)
Did you go to university?
snow1868@reddit
My parents went to Oklahoma State, my brother and I went to Oklahoma State. Loyal and True, through and through.
My wife and her whole family went to Florida and we live in Florida. My kids root for both of our schools, but I have a feeling they'll be Gators and not Cowboys.
DarinCN@reddit (OP)
Congratulations of continuing the tradition!