Yankee Girl Survives First Year at Southern University

[clemsongirl]

Ooh, another Southern/Northern difference I just thought of-collegiate sports versus professional sports. In the North, pro sports are the only sports as far as most people are concerned. I'm a die-hard Red Sox fan, but I could not care less what the local collegiate baseball team does or doesn't do, and I don't particularly care about Clemson's team either. Southerners are all about the college sports, even if they never went to that college-there were oodles of drunken fans at away football games who liked to harass the band that probably had never set foot on campus when it wasn't a Saturday.

This applies to high school sports too-I went to one football game in high school even though I love football, because in addition to our 0-32 losing streak that spanned three seasons it just wasn't important whether we won or lost on Friday when the Patriots were going to play that Sunday. I saw a Georgia high school playoff game being televised in a restaurant when I went out to dinner with my boyfriend and his family, and I was astounded that anyone would care enough to watch it. I'm sure it helps when your school team is mildly competitive at the least, but I have a feeling that a team with the same skill level (or lack thereof) down South wouldn't have gotten laughed at and booed at the homecoming pep rally every year.

I suspect several factors play into this one-a greater population density and number of big cities in the North that beget more professional sports franchises, colder weather that prevents teams from practicing as much or fans from attending as many games, culture differences that place more of an emphasis on sports being a ticket out of a small town, etc.-but I can only speculate.

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by clemsongirl

Ooh, another Southern/Northern difference I just thought of-collegiate sports versus professional sports. In the North, pro sports are the only sports as far as most people are concerned. I'm a die-hard Red Sox fan, but I could not care less what the local collegiate baseball team does or doesn't do, and I don't particularly care about Clemson's team either. Southerners are all about the college sports, even if they never went to that college-there were oodles of drunken fans at away football games who liked to harass the band that probably had never set foot on campus when it wasn't a Saturday.

This applies to high school sports too-I went to one football game in high school even though I love football, because in addition to our 0-32 losing streak that spanned three seasons it just wasn't important whether we won or lost on Friday when the Patriots were going to play that Sunday. I saw a Georgia high school playoff game being televised in a restaurant when I went out to dinner with my boyfriend and his family, and I was astounded that anyone would care enough to watch it. I'm sure it helps when your school team is mildly competitive at the least, but I have a feeling that a team with the same skill level (or lack thereof) down South wouldn't have gotten laughed at and booed at the homecoming pep rally every year.

I suspect several factors play into this one-a greater population density and number of big cities in the North that beget more professional sports franchises, colder weather that prevents teams from practicing as much or fans from attending as many games, culture differences that place more of an emphasis on sports being a ticket out of a small town, etc.-but I can only speculate.

I think it's definitely because a lot of southern states don't have professional sports teams, and some of the cities that do have teams don't have all of the major 4 sports covered.

Boston, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Cleveland, etc. all cover 3 or 4 of the major leagues - NFL, NHL, MLB, and NBA. In some cases, they have two teams for just one sport. And then you look at an area like New England, where all of the Boston teams really "represent" and have fans from 6 different states.

Then you look at states like Oklahoma, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, etc. that don't have any professional teams across the entire state, or they have very few. And then there are some large cities that you would expect to have at least one team (Austin, TX, I'm looking at you!) that have none. College sporting events are the only ones to attend.

And yes, the focus on high school sports in the south is huge compared to the north. I must say, I had NO IDEA how big football was here in TX until I got here. I drove by a football stadium and asked my bf, "Which college is that?" He told me that it was, in fact, a high school stadium. And that's not the only one around here that's enormous.

[clemsongirl]

Originally Posted by ASTalumna06

I think it's definitely because a lot of southern states don't have professional sports teams, and some of the cities that do have teams don't have all of the major 4 sports covered.

Boston, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Cleveland, etc. all cover 3 or 4 of the major leagues - NFL, NHL, MLB, and NBA. In some cases, they have two teams for just one sport. And then you look at an area like New England, where all of the Boston teams really "represent" and have fans from 6 different states.

Then you look at states like Oklahoma, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, etc. that don't have any professional teams across the entire state, or they have very few. And then there are some large cities that you would expect to have at least one team (Austin, TX, I'm looking at you!) that have none. College sporting events are the only ones to attend.

And yes, the focus on high school sports in the south is huge compared to the north. I must say, I had NO IDEA how big football was here in TX until I got here. I drove by a football stadium and asked my bf, "Which college is that?" He told me that it was, in fact, a high school stadium. And that's not the only one around here that's enormous.

Plus there are a lot more smaller liberal arts colleges up North where athletics is not a focus and not important, versus the South where you can have one or two large state schools that absolutely dominate the local culture and consequently the sports in-state, i.e. USC and Clemson. The number of colleges Massachusetts manages to cram into such a small state (and it's not even the whole state because there is no Massachusetts past Worcester) always astounds me.

The stadium that marching band practiced at before the bowl game this year was gigantic, and it was only a high school stadium as well! I was amazed that so much money would be devoted to a facility that only gets used for one season out of the year, but it's not my money to spend. Marching band is equally huge in the South-when I went to band camp this past summer and told people that I had never marched before because we had no marching band at my high school, I got looked at like I had three heads.

[Cheerio]

Originally Posted by clemsongirl

Ooh, another Southern/Northern difference I just thought of-collegiate sports versus professional sports.

Southerners are all about the college sports

The University Of Alabama-Huntsville Men's Ice Hockey Team would love to see these people at their games.

[amIblue?]

Originally Posted by Cheerio

The University Of Alabama-Huntsville Men's Ice Hockey Team would love to see these people at their games.

Lol!

[clemsongirl]

Originally Posted by Cheerio

The University Of Alabama-Huntsville Men's Ice Hockey Team would love to see these people at their games.

Okay, generally sports that don't involve ice or other cold things

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by clemsongirl

Okay, generally sports that don't involve ice or other cold things

Except for cold beverages (says the Southern-born Carolina Hurricanes fan.)

[ASTalumna06]

So here's something that came up tonight that made me think of this thread...

I was having dinner tonight with my bf (who's originally from TX) and a friend (who's from South Africa). My bf was making fun of me because I call a shopping cart a "carriage," and our South African friend said that he calls it a "trolley."

What say you, GCers? Cart? Carriage? Trolley? Buggy? etc.

What do people tend to call them in your neck of the woods?

[33girl]

It's a cart. My parents/grandparents occasionally called it a buggy.

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by ASTalumna06

So here's something that came up tonight that made me think of this thread...

I was having dinner tonight with my bf (who's originally from TX) and a friend (who's from South Africa). My bf was making fun of me because I call a shopping cart a "carriage," and our South African friend said that he calls it a "trolley."

What say you, GCers? Cart? Carriage? Trolley? Buggy? etc.

What do people tend to call them in your neck of the woods?

Cart or buggy. We call them buggies all the time in Louisiana.

[ComradesTrue]

Originally Posted by naraht

To give you an idea, I consider Dallas culturally southern, but not Ft. Worth.

Uh, no. You got it backwards.

Originally Posted by shirley1929

This is a mistake (my opinion)...Dallas is as culturally southern as Nebraska. Fort Worth is far more southern-acting than Dallas. Dallas the city =/= Dallas the TV show.

Having spent 20+ years in Fort Worth and almost 10 years in Dallas, I agree completely. And Dallas the city is rather bland.

Originally Posted by ASTalumna06

What say you, GCers? Cart? Carriage? Trolley? Buggy? etc.

Buggy. But now that I no longer live in Texas I do manage to work in "cart" every once in a while.