Stay classy, IU

Anyone who has attended an IU football game recently knows that school cheers have undergone a peculiar transformation. The staccato catchiness of “Go! Big! Red!” has been supplanted by the equally catchy, albeit edgier, “Hey, you suck!” A few measures later, the band’s final three notes give the student section just enough time for a hurried refrain of rhyming profanity before “Go Big Red!”

On no reasonable grounds can one challenge the natural sense of pride and devotion one develops for his school or alma mater. To dim such exuberance would be to disavow a great truth and tradition in American culture: Years of collegiate growth and learning yield a steadfast, passionate love for the institution in which that growth and learning took place.  

No matter how disconnected from these more elevated notions of collegiate support an IU football game might appear, athletic events remain one of the primary ways of showing support and admiration for one’s school. Just as filling a stadium and pumping your arms to the first down jig might seem like an insignificant expression of support, chanting profanities and engaging in crude behavior might also seem relatively insignificant.

But any action even slightly associated with one’s school ultimately reflects upon the individual and the institution itself. The phrase “higher learning” assumes not only a greater level of educational development, but a higher level of personal conduct as well.
Of course, IU athletics have not always attracted the most upstanding role models for sportsmanlike behavior. In fact, contradicting messages have beleaguered the department for years.

Bobby Knight used to demand that fans not express their disappointment in crude or obnoxious ways – that is, when he wasn’t throwing chairs onto the court or ripping into a referee.

More recently, the Hoosier faithful endured a leader who offered lip service to sportsmanlike conduct and ethical behavior while transgressing ethical codes himself (See Sampson, Kelvin).

Although IU athletics’ occasionally infamous reputation has hardly served to encourage respectable conduct within the student section, it is high time to address this descent into crudeness. There was a time when sporting events were less about deriding the opponent and more about encouraging the good guy.

There was a time when passion and enthusiasm weren’t proven by profanity. School spirit was evidenced by pride in the institution and pride in the responsibilities of representing that institution with dignity.  

Unfortunately, the crowd mentality is alive and well at IU football games. Regardless of what those around us might say or do, remember IU and respect the higher ideals it attempts to engrain in its students.

Passionately cheering for the Hoosiers and holding our heads high in victory and defeat – these are the timeless trademarks of true sportsmanship and class. But organized swearing and harassment? We are better than this. So cheer loud, keep it clean, and let’s play 13.