" I'm a big sports fan. College football is my favorite." Verne Troyer

(Reader alert:  some sports allusions made that may be opaque to a non-fan.)

Why do people become sports fans?  Why did my mother – in the middle of New Mexico – in the 1950’s rabidly root for the Brooklyn Dodgers in their perennial World Series match up with the Yankees?  During that time you’d’ve thought Pee Wee Reese was her son.

My Dad was a boxing fan and listened to every heavyweight championship bout and the Indy 500 every year.  All on AM radio, of course.

The first sports team I remember rooting for was Southern Methodist University when they were in the 1956 NCAA basketball tournament.  I thought, in my youthful innocence, that I was a Methodist at the time.  (My I-want-her-to-be-my-girl-friend went to the Methodist Church.)  I also remember following the minor league team, the Albuquerque Dukes – but without much commitment.  Never went to a game.  They were the closest professional team of any sort.

I think our allegiance to a sports team stems from a need from our hunter-gatherer heritage.  We want to belong - be a part of a tribe.  Share the spoils of victory.  It’s completely irrational, of course.

I got sucked in big time into becoming a sports fan when I started going to Southern Cal.  That time was their heyday in college football.   John McKay, O.J. Simpson and the list goes on.  I claim it was impossible to be on that campus at that time and not become a fan.  The damned Bruins and Irish became the mortal enemies.  A couple of the football players took the physics lab course I was responsible for as a teaching assistant.  They always came well prepared because they wanted to get to training as soon as possible.   I memorized the words, “Fight on for ol’ SC…” and started worshipping white horses – something a Methodist would never do.

In my mature years I’ve noticed that I will follow local teams – but only if they’re doing well - and not with the same ferocity as when I was younger.  I lived in Chicago when the Bears won it all.  The sports program at South Carolina has had some recent successes.  They’ve won the NCAA baseball tournament and have a very competitive football team.

Other sporting events can easily attract my attention.  Wimbleton, The Master’s, Olympic Curling  (I know, I know),…  When I lived in England, I started following – God forbid – soccer and cricket.

Not that I'm anxious or anything like that, But the Trojans first game is August 30 – 97 days, 6 hours, and 31 minutes away.

©2014 Lester C. Welch