The following letter appeared in our Toledo Paper this week:
After attending the football game between the University of Toledo and Ohio State, I am compelled to write this . My family and I have been UT fans for years. Many are alums; my son will graduate in May 2010. We are huge fans, and were eagerly awaiting the match up against OSU. My niece's boyfriend is a senior starter , which made the game even more exciting.
On that beautiful afternoon, we began our walk to the stadium; among a sea of scarlet and gray, we proudly wore our UT blue, gold, and high-fived other scarce UT fans. Once seated, we realized we were the only 10 UT fans for miles , but we cheered for our team. Unfortunately, there were only five civil OSU fans around; the rest were belligerent, drunk, and obnoxious.
A man and woman were jeering UT on nearly every play. When they noticed we were wearing jerseys sporting the offensive lineman's number, they became personal and insulting. When the comments regressed to insults toward Toledoans, our town, and its people, a family member turned and told the man to stop his vituperations. My niece was intimidated into changing her seat.
I'm quite sure Jim Tressel would be mortified at this type of behavior from the OSU fan base. I know I was; I can honestly say I would never attend another OSU function. I have never seen more crude, obnoxious, and rude fans. As we left at the end of the game, our family member said to the most obnoxious OSU fan, "Your mother must be really proud." They had no comment.
Will I will comment. We're not alone in the "schools with morons" list, but I always wonder what drives these people to be jerks and embarrass our school. Is it the alcohol that makes them jerks or were they born that way? My apologies to the folks from Toledo. Hope you understand we're not all like that.
Many say there is nothing you can do about it, but there is. When I started this gig I would go up and shake hands with opposing fans to get their reaction to the 'Shoe. I started mainly to look for material for the book. Now I continue to make a point of doing some of that every game, just to be an ambassador. It's so easy everyone can do it. Just walk up to them, stick out your hand, and say welcome to Ohio Stadium. I usually add something like, "Hope everyone is treating you all right" and "Good luck, but not too good now" (That always draws a laugh!)
Try it yourself...you'll find you meet some awfully nice and interesting people. And when you have a civil conversation with them, you will usually find out most have some very nice things to say about our stadium and our team.
How much better would our image be if the drunks sitting around this lady had done that instead?