This past Homecoming, I donned the school's colors. I wore my hat, T-shirt and sweatshirt all emblazoned with the school's name. After all, I had to support my team in the big game. But it wasn't the red and blue of Penn that adorned me. It was the maize and blue of the University of Michigan.
I'm not ashamed to say it: I really don't care about Penn football. The last time I went to a game was freshman year. It was the Penn-Harvard game, and even then, I didn't actually see any of the contest. I just rushed the field afterwards to try and tear down the goal posts. I don't know anything about the team or its players except that once, Marshall Faulk's cousin played for us. I think.
That's not to say I'm not a fan of college football, or football in general. In fact, quite the opposite. I'm perhaps one of the most die-hard football fans you'll find. I have an unhealthy obsession with the sport. I read ESPN.com like it's my job, and play in an inordinate number of fantasy football leagues for no other reason than because I can. I'm willing to bet that my productivity is significantly higher during the spring than in the fall because I'm not camped out in front of the TV on weekends watching the NCAA and the NFL.
Yet, no matter how hard I try, I just can't get into football here. Believe me, I've tried. It's just been difficult. The games are boring, and the competition is lacking. In fact, back in October, Daily Pennsylvanian Senior Sports Editor David Burrick listed five compelling reasons why Penn students just aren't able to embrace the Quakers. Last Friday, this paper ran a staff editorial suggesting that the athletic department do more to get people to come to the big Penn-Harvard game. Apparently, they even had a Fan Appreciation Day at Franklin Field. I wouldn't know. I missed the game. I had to wash my hair, or play solitaire or something. Apparently we lost.
But the disturbingly low attendance is part of a bigger problem. As students, we should take pride in trekking to Franklin Field and supporting the Quakers. But we don't. A general sense of apathy has descended upon the student body. What we need is not more competition or more meaningful games. What we need is more school spirit.
For someone like me to be completely uninterested in free college football says a lot about this school. I simply have no desire to see the game. It doesn't bother me if Penn loses, and I'm not particularly elated if we win. Obviously, I'd prefer a victory, but I'm not willing to make any sort of investment to support my team.
I don't believe that I'm alone. This sort of malaise is present throughout the student body. Whenever I put on my Penn sweatshirt (usually because it's the first clean thing I grab out of my closet), my friends ask me why I'm wearing it. Everyone knows I go here, so why is it necessary to sport my school's apparel? They think it's pretentious.
This sort of attitude goes a long way toward explaining the lack of attendance at games. We don't feel a sense of loyalty to our school. In fact, I'd bet that the biggest rivalry Penn students feel is not the one between Penn and Princeton, but the one between the College and Wharton.
If the administration wants to encourage us to attend the football games, chazerai (it's Yiddish, look it up) like magnets and pretzels is not the way to go. The effect of these promotions is marginal at best. Students shouldn't need to be bribed to come to games. This goes beyond the athletic department. Perhaps one of President Gutmann's new initiatives should be to make us all feel proud to go to Penn by raising school spirit on campus. She should make us want to support our team on the football field.
Why do we only see the trees on Locust Walk decorated with red and blue during Homecoming? Keep the trees that color during the entire season. Heck, keep them that way the whole year round. Why not make those giant snowflake lights the colors of the Quakers?
Enthusiasm for Penn football should start at the top. Freshman year, I remember seeing the mascot and an old man drive across campus garnering support for the Quakers on the Fridays before games. I haven't seen them since. If members of the administration, the football team or, at the very least, the mascot were still actively promoting the team, then the student body would be more inclined to support Penn on the field. On either side of the ball, it doesn't seem as if there is any real interest.
Until there is, I'll stick with the maize and blue.
Craig Cohen is a Wharton junior from Woodbury, N.Y. He Hate Me appears on Fridays.
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