From time to time we get a post from some UM alumnus or current student snob who disses football fans because they didn't contribute financially to the school. This is for you.
I am an alumnus of the University of Tennessee. I am a UM fan. I have attended games for fifty+ years. My children are UM football fans.
Two are college grads, none attended the U. I have been a season ticket holder for decades, and have traveled coast to coast. Almost all of the trips were with a core group that over the years included my friend's grown children and their friends. These friends include FSU and Auburn grads, all hard core Canes fans. I have only casual interest in Vols football and it would probably take free airfare, hotel, and game tickets to get me to one.
We are all hard-core fans because we all from Miami-Dade and have enjoyed UM football from the days before and during when it changed the face of modern football. I was in the stands in the OB, JRS, underwear park and whatever.
Despite holding my nose at the level of coaching I still get excited about UM football because I know there will be good athletes on the field.
Honestly, in my opinion the University of Miami is not that great a school. It has a nice little campus, but there are many great ones across the country. That's not to say I don't believe one can't get a good education there. A good education is a function of a student's effort+peers+teachers and, in some disciplines, maybe facilities. None of this matters much to me. Oh, I almost forgot, my best friend who's done almost all of this with me did sent his son to UM. He's the one who, as a student, used to sit in the upper corner of the OB and read a book and has never traveled to an away game as a student or a graduate because he doesn't give a ****.
I watch UM football because I grew up with it and because of the great football experiences over the years, not because I feel compelled to support the band, the hospital, the marine facility, whatever. Without Canes football there is no "The U" there is only a smallish private school in Coral Gables attended by mostly people from out of town. Not to be totally negative, I love attending Canes baseball, concerts, and theater. Did I mention the girls at UT are better looking?
Feel free to "fire for effect."
I assume you're addressing me. While we're whipping out our ****s, I'll tell my story.
I'm not a UM alum. Undergrad at UF, grad school at FSU, because my folks couldn't afford the tuition at a private school.
My father grew up in Hialeah in the 50s/60s. Grew up a lifelong UM fan. Also could not afford the tuition. Went to FAU, but attended UM games religiously for 25+ years, before moving out of the area to northern FLA in the mid-80s.
While we lived in So Fla, I attended games religiously with him. Also attended tons of UM baseball games.
When we moved to No Fla, we'd trek two to three times a year to make games until he died in the late 90s. Last game was VT in the OB in 98.
After he died, I carried on the tradition while attending grad school at FSU. I road tripped to So Fla for long weekends, often by myself, as all my friends were Nole fans (or fans of their respective undergrad schools).
After grad school, I moved to NC, and while I no longer have the ability to trek to So Fla on the regular, I try to make a game a year at JRS, and I attend whatever games are near me in NC.
I got into UM football because of my father, and I grew up in the midst of UM's era of greatness. It's been awesome, and still is. I still get pumped before every season. I still get chills. I've seen tons of great games.
Here's the thing, though--and here's the difference between you and me, Chuckles. Even though neither my father nor I went to UM, we always respected UM as a school. We always knew that without the university, there would be no Hurricane football. I know that UM's small class size, like many other private colleges, has its advantages over the mammoth classes I took as a freshman and sophomore at UF. I know that, were I to have gone through with my 9th grade dream of becoming a marine biologist, there'd have been no better place than UM. When my mom was diagnosed with cancer, her doc in Jacksonville immediately put her in touch with a specialist from UM at Jackson Memorial and suggested that my mom go there instead of anywhere else in FLA.
Aside from that knowledge and respect, my father also provided me with the knowledge that you have to pay into what you like, if you want it to remain. Not just by buying tickets to games, but also by supporting the larger enterprise of the school and the athletic dept. Even though he wasn't an alum, he gave a few hundred each year to UM...half to whatever funding drive the university had going on at the time, and half to the AD. Having grown up in the era when UM was crap and nearly gave up football, he didn't want to see that happen again, and he did his part to prevent it.
I do the same.
