Purple Heart
New Member
Lessons on fan arrogance
What I’m getting ready to say - does not seem all that long ago that I was saying the same things about TCU on the Baylor message board (but looking back, it was at least 10 years ago, if not longer). Give TCU more respect, I said, because we deserve it. They did not want to hear the truth about (and they would argue with you all day long) TCU’s athletic successes and how many more “this or that” we had than they had. Discussion of sports other than football did not matter to them, either. All they wanted to talk about was how horrible our football team was. That was an undeserved reputation, I would say, and based on the horrendous decade of the 70’s (give or take some years in both directions). We were better than that, I would say – look, we just beat this team and that team, and besides, look at the program’s overall history, bowl games, All-Americans, etc. Did not matter to them (nor did it matter to most fans of other schools). The only thing that mattered was our reputation, which had not changed yet. Now it has. Turns out, the insult and hurt of being left out of the Big 12 was probably the fire that lit the momentum which has only grown and we are still enjoying.
Funny how things have changed. I was disappointed in some Baylor fans back then, and when I read some posts about Baylor on this board now, I am disappointed in some TCU fans today. I am telling you (especially this new breed of some TCU fans – young Turks who think they know everything) that you should give Baylor more respect - because they deserve it. In case you haven’t noticed, virtually the ONLY sport Baylor is not very competitive and successful in on a national level is football (and even with football, they have had a few respectable wins – CGP would be the first to tell you that overlooking them this fall would be a huge mistake). They just made it to the national Elite 8 in basketball, and were winning for most of the game and darn near beat the eventual national champion, Duke. They have won more overall Big 12 conference championships (including all sports) and yes, national championships, than most of the other Big 12 schools since the inception of the conference. Look it up. Golf, track, tennis, baseball, women’s basketball, you name it – deserves respect, respect, respect. Okay, make fun of their reputation now because of the debacles of the football team over the past decade plus. Fine - laugh about them being potentially left out of the new super conference alignment or whatever. Fine – but arrogance doesn’t suit you well, and Baylor is not going away I can assure you. Sometimes, being left out can lead to good things. And things do change, in case you haven’t noticed.
Truth is, both TCU and Baylor have two of the finest overall sports programs in the nation, and certainly the Southwest. They are both fine institutions, too. And they have played one another in sports for longer than just about any two schools anywhere. Literally, look it up. How many football games have there been between the two schools? I think the number is well over 100 and in the top 5 in the nation.
Leave the arrogance to the Longhorn fans. They are the experts at that, and its fun to watch them lose. The bigger they are, the harder they fall (and by the way, Baylor owns a five game win streak over the men’s basketball Longhorns, and I love it).
Go Frogs! Omaha Bound! (But no matter what happens, baseball fans, Baylor did “run rule” us in Waco this year, and give us a pretty good run for our money in Fort Worth, winning for much of that game).
Finally, just so there’s no mistaking where my allegiance lies if push comes to shove, I will be wearing purple and cheering only for the Frogs if we play them Saturday night – and odds are, we will. But I will show a lot of deserved respect for the Bears, and I’ll be cheering for them and wearing green and gold tomorrow afternoon versus Arizona.
What I’m getting ready to say - does not seem all that long ago that I was saying the same things about TCU on the Baylor message board (but looking back, it was at least 10 years ago, if not longer). Give TCU more respect, I said, because we deserve it. They did not want to hear the truth about (and they would argue with you all day long) TCU’s athletic successes and how many more “this or that” we had than they had. Discussion of sports other than football did not matter to them, either. All they wanted to talk about was how horrible our football team was. That was an undeserved reputation, I would say, and based on the horrendous decade of the 70’s (give or take some years in both directions). We were better than that, I would say – look, we just beat this team and that team, and besides, look at the program’s overall history, bowl games, All-Americans, etc. Did not matter to them (nor did it matter to most fans of other schools). The only thing that mattered was our reputation, which had not changed yet. Now it has. Turns out, the insult and hurt of being left out of the Big 12 was probably the fire that lit the momentum which has only grown and we are still enjoying.
Funny how things have changed. I was disappointed in some Baylor fans back then, and when I read some posts about Baylor on this board now, I am disappointed in some TCU fans today. I am telling you (especially this new breed of some TCU fans – young Turks who think they know everything) that you should give Baylor more respect - because they deserve it. In case you haven’t noticed, virtually the ONLY sport Baylor is not very competitive and successful in on a national level is football (and even with football, they have had a few respectable wins – CGP would be the first to tell you that overlooking them this fall would be a huge mistake). They just made it to the national Elite 8 in basketball, and were winning for most of the game and darn near beat the eventual national champion, Duke. They have won more overall Big 12 conference championships (including all sports) and yes, national championships, than most of the other Big 12 schools since the inception of the conference. Look it up. Golf, track, tennis, baseball, women’s basketball, you name it – deserves respect, respect, respect. Okay, make fun of their reputation now because of the debacles of the football team over the past decade plus. Fine - laugh about them being potentially left out of the new super conference alignment or whatever. Fine – but arrogance doesn’t suit you well, and Baylor is not going away I can assure you. Sometimes, being left out can lead to good things. And things do change, in case you haven’t noticed.
Truth is, both TCU and Baylor have two of the finest overall sports programs in the nation, and certainly the Southwest. They are both fine institutions, too. And they have played one another in sports for longer than just about any two schools anywhere. Literally, look it up. How many football games have there been between the two schools? I think the number is well over 100 and in the top 5 in the nation.
Leave the arrogance to the Longhorn fans. They are the experts at that, and its fun to watch them lose. The bigger they are, the harder they fall (and by the way, Baylor owns a five game win streak over the men’s basketball Longhorns, and I love it).
Go Frogs! Omaha Bound! (But no matter what happens, baseball fans, Baylor did “run rule” us in Waco this year, and give us a pretty good run for our money in Fort Worth, winning for much of that game).
Finally, just so there’s no mistaking where my allegiance lies if push comes to shove, I will be wearing purple and cheering only for the Frogs if we play them Saturday night – and odds are, we will. But I will show a lot of deserved respect for the Bears, and I’ll be cheering for them and wearing green and gold tomorrow afternoon versus Arizona.
hmy:
