re: "Taking the Crowd Out of the Game"

quote:

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our fans have become tourists,

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This is a complex topic with a lot of room and avenues for discussion and disagreement. I may not be right in a lot of my passionate conclusions on this subject.

But back in the late sixties-through the seventies and eighties, when we were mostly the underdogs against the premier programs, most fans came to the stadium like they were going to war.

Most games were not televised, so if you wanted to see LSU, you had to get a ticket and go to Tiger Stadium.

The fisherman from Berwick ...

The mechanic from Jennings ...

The welder from Patterson ...

buoyed by an afternoon of drinking, those guys were ready to defend their turf. They weren't there to see and be seen.

Much of the time, the crowd doesn't have the "edge" it used to have.

But maybe I'm just being nostalgic. Much of that time I'm nostalgic about the TS crowd as "warriors," the team didn't win as much as it does now.

It would be nice to combine the two, though.