Glad I didn't go to Illinois!!!

Everyone has been considered a “MEAN” fan before. I know when I was in college we used to heckle the other schools, For example when we played Mount St. Mary’s (MD) we always used to chant “Mount St. Ferries” (I know your thinking how original those kids from Monmouth are). We also used to chant “Safety School” when we used to play our in state rival Farleigh Dickenson University. The one thing we never did and I was taught never to do to opposing teams and fans, is throw objects or start fights with them. Late Thursday night at 9:07 pm there was a rivalry game on ESPN between the Indiana University Hoosiers, and the University of Illinois Fighting Illini.

This was a very unique game because the star player on the court (freshman Eric Gordon) was supposed to attend the University of Illinois as he told them in 2006, but one year later he changed his mind and decided to attend school in Bloomington. When they announced this poor kids name in the starting lineup he was booed more then any one I have seen in a long time, and it didn’t stop there. Through out the game this star was being heckled and yelled at, I would almost rather be Bill Buckner walking through the streets of Boston then be Eric Gordon playing at Illinois (probably not!). Everyone knew there would be yelling, and they dealt with that ok, but when it took a Ron Artest turn, is when things got out of hand. Towards the end of the game (which I must add was terrific) drunken Illinois fans started tossing cups of water, among other things at Eric Gordon’s family, this was completely out of line, and security was brought in. Me being a Cleveland Browns fan I attended a game in Pittsburgh this year, and yes people were yelling at me and saying ridiculous things, but at no point did I have anything thrown at me. These Illinois fans should be ashamed of themselves! They have to learn that “SHIT HAPPENS” so what you lose a star player to your rival school, there are many other fish in the sea.

The game on the other hand was a double overtime thriller (Indiana pulled off the W), which non other then Eric Gordon himself banked home a 3-pointer at the end of regulations to put this thing into overtime. If I was an Illinois fan I would have thrown stuff at Shaun Pruitt and his family because this guy couldn’t hit a free throw if his life depended on it! I would be more confident with Shaq on the free throw line!

On a brighter note this game had me thinking a lot about cheers that colleges use. The best cheer of all times goes to Austin Peay University, who used to have a player with the last name of Tinkle on their team (How fitting), the fans used to cheer “We’ve gotta Tinkle LETS GO PEAY” (most amazing cheer of all time). Over in Athens, OH where Ohio University is located, they have one of the most unique cheers of all time as seen in this video. If any of you out there are lucky one day I might even include the cheer that I made up for Delonte West while he was playing at St. Joseph’s University, but to hear that one you will have to shoot us an email.