From Where I Sit: How Fans Are Made
9/21/2010 12:48:59 PM | Football
Saturday's home opener was everything it needed to be. First and foremost, we got the win. But more than that, the weather was perfect and it enticed a good crowd of tailgaters. A past-time that many larger schools have been enjoying for years is starting to catch on in Orange land. There were tents and music and plumes of barbeque smoke all around the Hill.
Walking up to the Dome, touching Ernie's shoe, sliding through the turnstiles, greeting our season ticket neighbors – it's all a comforting ritual -- the kick-off to another season of hope.
The contest against Maine was Pop Warner Night in the Dome. Sprinkled throughout the stadium in small groups and whole teams were various youth football and cheer squads proudly wearing their jerseys and uniforms.
There are all kinds of fans. Personally, I'm a townie without a Syracuse degree. My father and sister went to Syracuse, but that's not why I'm a fan.
I could probably trace it all back to the West Virginia game in 1987, which I attended with my own ESM Eagles Pop Warner team. I witnessed a very special game during a historic season in a sold-out Dome. It made an impression.
It still actually took years for me to become a die-hard. And honestly, I don't even know when that transition occurred. I remember in high school, I tried to become a Miami fan. I bought a couple hats, watched games on weekends. The 'Canes were a team to be reckoned with, to be sure. If you liked winning, Miami was a team that was easy to root for.
But when I went away to college I learned something. I learned that sometimes, home is special. Sometimes, right around the corner, history is made. Sometimes, wearing your team colors and rooting for YOUR team celebrates a common bond you have with all the fans cheering around you -- a bond of history, of culture, of shared experiences.
The Pop Warner teams were all invited out on to the field at half-time. They formed two long lines out to mid-field. And then Floyd Little trotted out, grinning ear to ear, high-fiving kids as he went. Half of them probably had no idea who he was. But when they look back on their memories of that game, they'll remember, and they'll tell those listening that Floyd Little was the seventh Syracuse alumnus to be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Fans were made on Saturday. Fans that will someday be die-hards. And they'll trace it all back to that day they high-fived Floyd Little.
