LETTER: Aggie aggression in the Spectrum

To the editor:

I was sitting at a basketball game the other day and noticed an interesting trend… then again, how could anyone not notice? The derogatory comments being chanted in unison by the crowd were so loud that they probably could have been heard outside.

The Spectrum has a national reputation for being a difficult place to play; chants such as “Air-ball!” and “You will miss it!” are trademark ways of being a rabid Aggie fan and that’s great; it’s what makes being an Aggie so much fun! However we, as a student body, seem to have recently added additional warheads to our arsenal. After the opposing team causes a foul, the usual accosting goes something like this: “You, you, you… Yooooooou suck!” “You, you, you…” = good; “You suck” = bad. Other chants are similar in directly insulting the other team; you know which ones they are so I won’t list them for space.

If anyone listens before the game, there is an announcement that directs fans to have good sportsmanship by not saying anything derogatory or sexist to the visiting team. I feel like these recent trends are crossing this line of bad sportsmanship. We are together as a student body, and that is great; we feed off that energy, and the team feeds off it. When we cross into the realm of being insulting and belligerent to the opposing team, it is just a matter of time before the referees get ticked and call a technical foul on the crowd, or teams just simply won’t come to play us here.

I know that there are plenty of students out there that are uncomfortable with these chants, and all it would take is for the majority to not participate. What it boils down to is this: what do you want your legacy to be? What do you want our school’s reputation to be in the conference and the nation? Do you want USU to be remembered for a great basketball team with an enthusiastic, supportive crowd; or a great team with a mean, borderline rude crowd? Your choice.

Dru Brown