Author: Jack McHenry
On game nights, particularly during playoffs, jersey clad students pack common rooms and the screams containing the despair of defeat or ecstasy of victory can be heard far down dormitory hallways. On Occidental’s campus, one can spot students representing teams from Boston to the Bay and everywhere in between.
Just as Occidental’s student body offers an interesting social cross section of the United States, it also offers a varied cross section of passionate sports fans. While the physical displacement from their native fan-bases can at times prove to be a challenge to their fanaticism, many Occidental students have maintained a high level of interest and consistent support for the preferred sports teams of their youth. Indeed, though hundreds, or at times, thousands, of miles separate these students from the arenas of hometown heroes, they continue to support in spite of their geographic separation.
For many students, the teams directly from their hometown evoke the strongest feelings of support. If the University of Oregon Ducks football team consistently wore the same colors, Nate Sullivan (senior) would bleed them. Born and raised in Eugene, Oregon, Sullivan asserts that he has been a Ducks fan his entire life. Sullivan says he went to his first Ducks’ game when he was six or seven years old, but his seminal Duck memory came when he was in middle school. His stepmother, current Vice President for Student Affairs at University of Oregon, got him sideline passes for a game against the University of Southern California (USC).
“The thing I really remember the most is probably the passion and energy of the players on the sidelines and being astounded at how massive these guys really are. A couple times I almost got run over, probably the scariest thing of my life,” Sullivan said.
The Ducks’ victory that day proved to be an important moment for the success of their football program and an essential event in making Sullivan a fan for life.
Since being away from Eugene, where Sullivan said Ducks football is part of community life, the way in which Sullivan supports the Ducks has changed.
“Being at Occidental and being surrounded by fans with other, and at times hostile, sporting tastes makes me like and respect the Ducks even more. It makes me want to represent them wherever I go,” said Sullivan.
These sentiments get to the core of what it means to be a fan away from home. Lacking a preferred sporting community ignites an increased fanaticism born out of defiance. Ultimately, rooting for one’s favorite team away from home becomes a form of nostalgia, connecting to an important constant from growing up.
“It’s sad you can’t be a part of that [Eugene] environment during football season,” he said, “but at the same time it makes you more passionate. Separation makes the heart grow fonder.”
For some fans, the split with their favorite hometown team occurs at the most inconvenient time when they leave for school in August. For Adam DiBenedetto, born and raised in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, coming to Occidental means leaving behind his Yankees in the midst of the playoff race.
“Over the summer you watch every day, you follow the division race. When you come out [to Occidental] you have to watch the ticker and maybe the occasional game on ESPN. It makes it more difficult to watch and be a fan. It’s my duty,” he said.
Once again, the isolation in terms of fans with a common interest and the difficulty in having media access to one’s team of choice proves to foment a greater sense of team and hometown pride.
As a fan, DiBenedetto faces another specific challenge that comes with being a Yankees fan. The Yankees have won 27 World Series since the first World Series was played in 1903. For the sake of comparison, the team with the second most World Series wins, the St. Louis Cardinals, has won 10. This winning tradition, which has been as prominent as ever over the last 15 years, has created enemies nationwide and makes the Yankees the Darth Vader of Major League baseball. This is a reality DiBenedetto faces on campus, particularly during playoffs in the fall.
“You always have the bullseye on your chest. It’s a weight. Every day, every bad game, everybody is going to try to throw you under the bus. You can’t win the World Series every year,” he said.
However, thousands of miles of separation and plenty of Yankee naysayers do not slow DiBenedetto in his Sisyphean persistence to support the Yankees. “You gotta defend your team,” he said. “You can’t let people take cheap shots.”
Unlike Sullivan and DiBenedetto, Dan Singh has the luxury of being close to his favorite teams. As a resident of Downey, California, Singh is a supporter of the Los Angeles area sports teams, the Lakers in particular. While Sullivan and DiBenedetto await nationally televised games, Singh can enjoy daily coverage through local media.
“Sports radio is huge for me,” said Singh. “I am an old man when it comes to that.”
Senior citizen or college student aside, Singh illuminates the fact that being an L.A. sports fan at Occidental does not restrict one’s access to local television and radio broadcasts of live sporting events.
In spite of being within the boundaries of his favorite sports team’s geographic boundaries, Singh still partakes in some of the plights of the displaced sports fans at Occidental. Like DiBenedetto, Singh supports a team that garners hatred nationwide. The Lakers are one of the most successful NBA franchises of all time and have won five NBA championships in the last 11 years. This kind of success does not come without animosity, especially when coupled with provincial biases towards the city of Los Angeles. Like DiBenedetto, however, Singh remained defiant in the face of contention. “It’s welcomed. I like it, personally,” explained Singh. “Everybody hates the winner.”
On Occidental’s campus, however, Singh has a similar experience to many of the sports fans from out-of-state in that he is not surrounded by like-minded fans. In terms of being an L.A.-based sports fan, Singh felt that directly on campus, it is a “level playing field” because so many students from out-of-state continue to adamantly support their hometown squads.
The feelings of Sullivan, DiBenedetto and Singh reflect the thoughts of many fans on Occidental’s campus in terms of their disconnection from their own sporting communities, and their defiance as fans as a product of this disconnection. Sports fans at Occidental are cast into an environment where they are out of their element, every fan is part of a minority group of supporters due to the regional diversity of the student body.
However, this relat
ive isolation evokes a sense of nostalgia that solidifies one’s convictions in their hometown team. Furthermore, this nostalgia for fans is a way of connecting with home while being away. Much like Ireland remained the literary center of the universe for James Joyce long after he left the Emerald Isle, so Eugene, Brooklyn or Anywhereville, USA remain the heart of displaced Occidental sports fans.
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