Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.
Thursday, March 28, 2024
The Observer

Be loud and be proud!

Almost a year after graduating, I attended my first away game. It was a pleasant experience. Granted, it was at Stanford, where no one cares about football. I tailgated with friends and eventually found myself in a very pleasant state of mind. It was in this state of mind that I attended the actual football game. Unfortunately, it was a very rough game. This is when my frustrations gradually become more and more tangible, as I let out expletive upon expletive. Now, let me preface the following by saying I am a very proud alumnus of the University and have only but good intentions when it comes to cheering on the football team. However, this unwavering passion often leads to less than savory verbiage when the opposing team performs well, especially when their successes are the result of our team's potentially avoidable mishaps. As such, I became the recipient of a barrage of criticisms from various elderly alumni for my choice of language. Rather than concentrating their attacks on the opposing team, they decided to focus their scoldings in my direction because of my choice of words. I am the proud product of four years of student-section upbringing, where no botched play goes uncriticized. Our university's student section is relentless when it comes to letting the opposing team know when they have messed up. This is all in the good-natured spirit of supporting our university's football team. I would encourage the elderly members of our alumni community to embrace this outlook, rather than to criticize it. We may have different ways of expressing our frustrations, but that does not mean the younger generations' methodologies should be admonished for their frank and bold approach. This type of reprimanding makes for an unfulfilling experience when sitting in the alumni section. Rather than squabbling amongst ourselves on the subject of unsavory jargon, the alumni of Notre Dame should cooperate and join hands in cheering on the football team while allowing individuals to unabashedly express their frustrations toward the opposing team.
Jia Hua Juszczak
Alumnus
class of 2012
Dec. 3