Post by FIUFanatic on Feb 21, 2008 20:21:04 GMT -5
I have read some of your comments here...and even over at FAU's board of some interesting (or perhaps rude, or dumb) things done by the student section over at FAU, especially directed at our fans. Here is a blog from a national blogger of college basketball, Kyle Whelliston, where he espouses some of the things he saw, and heard...While perhaps fun for those most rabid "anti-FIU" FAU fans, many of them are at least borderline classless, if you ask me...
www.midmajority.com/2008/02/the-boubacar-2212008-marathon.php
excerpt:
www.midmajority.com/2008/02/the-boubacar-2212008-marathon.php
excerpt:
Florida Atlantic. Last night, it was Boca Raton for a Sun Belt clash between Florida International University and Florida Atlantic University. It's a big football rivalry, we've been told, but we simply weren't prepared for the intensity that occurs when two teams share two-thirds of two names. Fifteen minutes before game time, the foyer of the Owls' home ("The Burrow!") was filled with screaming students, all wearing crimson-colored T-shirts to celebrate the first "red-out" we've encountered this season.
Then everybody spilled into the large arena, and the crowd suddenly seemed very small indeed. Fifteen hundred people look more impressive in a hallway than in a 5,000-seat arena, but the FAU student section did its best to fill the place with noise. They certainly did. The Owl faithful are loud, proud, red-shirted... and each screams loud enough for four regular people. And they have very real hatred for their Sun Belt brethren from down the road in Miami.
Olé, olé, olé, olé! the students sang. FIU... is really gay!
I'm telling you, I had no idea that anyone at a school in placid Boca Raton, Fla. (home of peaceful waters and gentle breezes) would be capable of such anger. The FAU student section would fit in very well in the cities of the northeast, and there's a suspicion that a few of the its members are ex-pats from the north. They certainly knew a lot of chants I'd only previously heard in places like Philly or New York.
De-fense! (f**k 'em up!) De-fense! (f**k 'em up!)
But the FAU student section, right on top of press row at halfcourt, reserved its greatest hatred for one of its own. During the first half, chants of Jay sucks! Jay sucks! rose up from the crowd, so I checked the FIU roster to see if they had a walk-on I didn't know about named Jay. None existed, and I wondered if this was a longstanding tradition, not unlike the "Potvin Sucks" chant that's been a staple of New York Ranger games for nearly three decades. Finally, I asked a young man in a "Jay Sucks" t-shirt exactly who they were serenading.
"Jay" is Jay Warman, the sports editor of the University Press, the student newspaper at FAU. He sat on press row, inches from the student section, the very picture of calm stoicism as the yelled and spat at him. It turns out that Warman had written a critique of the student section during a live-blog of a nonconference game against Longwood last week.
Here's the offending passage that inspired a run of t-shirts, digitally inscribed at the 15:35 minute mark of the first half of a game that ended 93-69 in favor of FAU.
The student section is right behind me. They give an oral onslaught of "Ref you suck!" chants and the like. There isn't too much originality from this bunch.
f**k you, Jay! a fan yelled behind him at a similar juncture of the FIU game, spit flying from his mouth onto the press table. You f**king suck, Jay!
"I don't think a lot of them know why they hate me so much," the laid-back Warman told me afterwards in the media room. "It seems like a lot of them are just going along with it."
In the late stages of the game, a disappointing 72-66 loss that dropped the Owls to 6-9 in league play, the students wearing the red "Jay Sucks" t-shirts tore them off and threw them in a pile behind Warman's chair. Once the final buzzer sounded, a number of them ended up on the floor.
f**k you, F-I-U! they chanted. f**k you, F-I-U!
Never underestimate a Sun Belt rivalry.
Then everybody spilled into the large arena, and the crowd suddenly seemed very small indeed. Fifteen hundred people look more impressive in a hallway than in a 5,000-seat arena, but the FAU student section did its best to fill the place with noise. They certainly did. The Owl faithful are loud, proud, red-shirted... and each screams loud enough for four regular people. And they have very real hatred for their Sun Belt brethren from down the road in Miami.
Olé, olé, olé, olé! the students sang. FIU... is really gay!
I'm telling you, I had no idea that anyone at a school in placid Boca Raton, Fla. (home of peaceful waters and gentle breezes) would be capable of such anger. The FAU student section would fit in very well in the cities of the northeast, and there's a suspicion that a few of the its members are ex-pats from the north. They certainly knew a lot of chants I'd only previously heard in places like Philly or New York.
De-fense! (f**k 'em up!) De-fense! (f**k 'em up!)
But the FAU student section, right on top of press row at halfcourt, reserved its greatest hatred for one of its own. During the first half, chants of Jay sucks! Jay sucks! rose up from the crowd, so I checked the FIU roster to see if they had a walk-on I didn't know about named Jay. None existed, and I wondered if this was a longstanding tradition, not unlike the "Potvin Sucks" chant that's been a staple of New York Ranger games for nearly three decades. Finally, I asked a young man in a "Jay Sucks" t-shirt exactly who they were serenading.
"Jay" is Jay Warman, the sports editor of the University Press, the student newspaper at FAU. He sat on press row, inches from the student section, the very picture of calm stoicism as the yelled and spat at him. It turns out that Warman had written a critique of the student section during a live-blog of a nonconference game against Longwood last week.
Here's the offending passage that inspired a run of t-shirts, digitally inscribed at the 15:35 minute mark of the first half of a game that ended 93-69 in favor of FAU.
The student section is right behind me. They give an oral onslaught of "Ref you suck!" chants and the like. There isn't too much originality from this bunch.
f**k you, Jay! a fan yelled behind him at a similar juncture of the FIU game, spit flying from his mouth onto the press table. You f**king suck, Jay!
"I don't think a lot of them know why they hate me so much," the laid-back Warman told me afterwards in the media room. "It seems like a lot of them are just going along with it."
In the late stages of the game, a disappointing 72-66 loss that dropped the Owls to 6-9 in league play, the students wearing the red "Jay Sucks" t-shirts tore them off and threw them in a pile behind Warman's chair. Once the final buzzer sounded, a number of them ended up on the floor.
f**k you, F-I-U! they chanted. f**k you, F-I-U!
Never underestimate a Sun Belt rivalry.
