Niner Times: School spirit? Not here

University News and Notes
41

[quote=“Dowless, post:40, topic:27641”]In my opinion, one man from Charlotte changed fan loyalty for other schools in the state who were not members of the ACC. Every Tuesday or Wednesday night and on weekends in the early 80’s to mid-80s the Wal-Mart fan before they were Wal-Mart fans could watch the ACC play hoops at home in their living rooms. Sports on television meant that more people from Charlotte could watch the Tar Holes without driving over to Crapel Hill. I grew up in eastern NC watching college basketball as a big fan, but didn’t even know Charlotte had a team until 1997. That is because outside of the ACC nothing was accessible on antenna TV.

"Raycom sports was founded in 1979 by husband and wife, Rick and Dee Ray. Since its inception, it has produced and distributed football and basketball games from the Atlantic Coast Conference. (It was also a distributor of games from the Big Eight and Big Ten conferences, as well as the now defunct Southwest Conference.)
Rick Ray was a program manager at WCCB in Charlotte when he proposed that WCCB produce more basketball games. Ray thought that they would be very profitable for WCCB, given North Carolina’s reputation as a college basketball hotbed. However, station management turned him down. Not long after setting up shop, Ray put together an early-season basketball tournament which became the Great Alaska Shootout.

Two years later, Raycom made what would prove to be its biggest splash when it teamed up with Jefferson-Pilot Communications to take over production of ACC basketball games after longtime producer C. D. Chesley retired. The two companies formed a joint venture, Raycom/JP Sports."[/quote]

Please tell me this is just hyperbole…cause if not… ::slight_smile:

42

Moving to Belmont from VA in 1980 and growing up in a family of Chapel Hill fans I didn’t know about UNC Charlotte until I hit high school (1988). I even got some socks for Christmas that said UNCC on them in the mid 80s and I just assumed it was a branch of Chapel Hill.

43

[quote=“Chisox17, post:25, topic:27641”]When you have orientation couselors at SOAR asking kids whether they are Duke or UNC fans, you are going to foster an environment of shitty school spirit.
From day one, we need to pound home the theme of “you are now a NINER, no longer a (insert other team here)” to the freshmen.[/quote]

THIS THIS THIS!!!
How is this still so difficult to get through to whomever the imbecile SOAR director is?

44

[quote=“919R, post:41, topic:27641”][quote=“Dowless, post:40, topic:27641”]In my opinion, one man from Charlotte changed fan loyalty for other schools in the state who were not members of the ACC. Every Tuesday or Wednesday night and on weekends in the early 80’s to mid-80s the Wal-Mart fan before they were Wal-Mart fans could watch the ACC play hoops at home in their living rooms. Sports on television meant that more people from Charlotte could watch the Tar Holes without driving over to Crapel Hill. I grew up in eastern NC watching college basketball as a big fan, but didn’t even know Charlotte had a team until 1997. That is because outside of the ACC nothing was accessible on antenna TV.

"Raycom sports was founded in 1979 by husband and wife, Rick and Dee Ray. Since its inception, it has produced and distributed football and basketball games from the Atlantic Coast Conference. (It was also a distributor of games from the Big Eight and Big Ten conferences, as well as the now defunct Southwest Conference.)
Rick Ray was a program manager at WCCB in Charlotte when he proposed that WCCB produce more basketball games. Ray thought that they would be very profitable for WCCB, given North Carolina’s reputation as a college basketball hotbed. However, station management turned him down. Not long after setting up shop, Ray put together an early-season basketball tournament which became the Great Alaska Shootout.

Two years later, Raycom made what would prove to be its biggest splash when it teamed up with Jefferson-Pilot Communications to take over production of ACC basketball games after longtime producer C. D. Chesley retired. The two companies formed a joint venture, Raycom/JP Sports."[/quote]

Please tell me this is just hyperbole…cause if not… ::)[/quote]

Nope! That is the truth. We only had 4 or 5 TV channels until I was in high school. I use to be a Wolfpack fan since Valvano until the year before I became a student at Charlotte. Now I bleed green and NC State can suck it.

45

[quote=“Dowless, post:44, topic:27641”][quote=“919R, post:41, topic:27641”][quote=“Dowless, post:40, topic:27641”]In my opinion, one man from Charlotte changed fan loyalty for other schools in the state who were not members of the ACC. Every Tuesday or Wednesday night and on weekends in the early 80’s to mid-80s the Wal-Mart fan before they were Wal-Mart fans could watch the ACC play hoops at home in their living rooms. Sports on television meant that more people from Charlotte could watch the Tar Holes without driving over to Crapel Hill. I grew up in eastern NC watching college basketball as a big fan, but didn’t even know Charlotte had a team until 1997. That is because outside of the ACC nothing was accessible on antenna TV.

"Raycom sports was founded in 1979 by husband and wife, Rick and Dee Ray. Since its inception, it has produced and distributed football and basketball games from the Atlantic Coast Conference. (It was also a distributor of games from the Big Eight and Big Ten conferences, as well as the now defunct Southwest Conference.)
Rick Ray was a program manager at WCCB in Charlotte when he proposed that WCCB produce more basketball games. Ray thought that they would be very profitable for WCCB, given North Carolina’s reputation as a college basketball hotbed. However, station management turned him down. Not long after setting up shop, Ray put together an early-season basketball tournament which became the Great Alaska Shootout.

Two years later, Raycom made what would prove to be its biggest splash when it teamed up with Jefferson-Pilot Communications to take over production of ACC basketball games after longtime producer C. D. Chesley retired. The two companies formed a joint venture, Raycom/JP Sports."[/quote]

Please tell me this is just hyperbole…cause if not… ::)[/quote]

Nope! That is the truth. We only had 4 or 5 TV channels until I was in high school. I use to be a Wolfpack fan since Valvano until the year before I became a student at Charlotte. Now I bleed green and NC State can suck it.[/quote]

I’m seriously not trying to be a jerk here, but anyone who literally had not “heard” of Charlotte having a bball team before 1997 was NOT a “big college basketball fan”. We were going to our 3rd NCAA tourney in the last 5 seasons that year and had been in a league with Cincy, Louisville, etc. for 3 years at that point besides having been to a FF. I grew up in NC too and I knew of “UNCC” from my earliest sports memories and those were the late 70s/early 80s when I was ~10 years old.

46

Dowless…I got the same stuff from 919. I told him I had never heard of Charlotte either and I got the same rhetoric.

47

[quote=“919R, post:45, topic:27641”][quote=“Dowless, post:44, topic:27641”][quote=“919R, post:41, topic:27641”][quote=“Dowless, post:40, topic:27641”]In my opinion, one man from Charlotte changed fan loyalty for other schools in the state who were not members of the ACC. Every Tuesday or Wednesday night and on weekends in the early 80’s to mid-80s the Wal-Mart fan before they were Wal-Mart fans could watch the ACC play hoops at home in their living rooms. Sports on television meant that more people from Charlotte could watch the Tar Holes without driving over to Crapel Hill. I grew up in eastern NC watching college basketball as a big fan, but didn’t even know Charlotte had a team until 1997. That is because outside of the ACC nothing was accessible on antenna TV.

"Raycom sports was founded in 1979 by husband and wife, Rick and Dee Ray. Since its inception, it has produced and distributed football and basketball games from the Atlantic Coast Conference. (It was also a distributor of games from the Big Eight and Big Ten conferences, as well as the now defunct Southwest Conference.)
Rick Ray was a program manager at WCCB in Charlotte when he proposed that WCCB produce more basketball games. Ray thought that they would be very profitable for WCCB, given North Carolina’s reputation as a college basketball hotbed. However, station management turned him down. Not long after setting up shop, Ray put together an early-season basketball tournament which became the Great Alaska Shootout.

Two years later, Raycom made what would prove to be its biggest splash when it teamed up with Jefferson-Pilot Communications to take over production of ACC basketball games after longtime producer C. D. Chesley retired. The two companies formed a joint venture, Raycom/JP Sports."[/quote]

Please tell me this is just hyperbole…cause if not… ::)[/quote]

Nope! That is the truth. We only had 4 or 5 TV channels until I was in high school. I use to be a Wolfpack fan since Valvano until the year before I became a student at Charlotte. Now I bleed green and NC State can suck it.[/quote]

I’m seriously not trying to be a jerk here, but anyone who literally had not “heard” of Charlotte having a bball team before 1997 was NOT a “big college basketball fan”. We were going to our 3rd NCAA tourney in the last 5 seasons that year and had been in a league with Cincy, Louisville, etc. for 3 years at that point besides having been to a FF. I grew up in NC too and I knew of “UNCC” from my earliest sports memories and those were the late 70s/early 80s when I was ~10 years old.[/quote]

Dude, I totally understand where Dowless is coming from. I’m in the same boat. I grew up in Eastern NC. This Raycom thing is dead on. You don’t really hear much about ECU out there unless you live close to Greenville. ECU games only come on TV if you get the local Greenville station, and let’s not kid ourselves, they have a phenomenal football program. All that is on local television is UNC/Duke/NC State. The first I ever heard of Charlotte was when Brendan Plavich hit that shot at Indiana, and there was controversy over the buzzer, which put it all over Sportscenter. We get more coverage on Sportscenter than the local news in Eastern NC. Even so, I had no clue what “Charlotte” was. Then in high school when college became a real possibility I was told of UNC Charlotte. Had no idea this was the same school Brendan Plavich went.

That is why it is important to have the same brand across all departments.

48

Again—I’m sorry but if you are over the age of 12 and haven’t heard of any team that had been to multiple tourneys in recent years you just WERE NOT a “big fan” at that time. YOu may be now, but you weren’t then. Remember ALL tourney games are on TV and they were in the 90s also. How could anyone who looks at a bracket not then recognize (or know they have a team) one of the teams later? Sorry, that is just basic stuff.

Do you think any “big fan” will say they never heard of FGCU 2 years from now and they have ZERO history, unlike us (even in 1997).

49

Again—I’m sorry but if you are over the age of 12 and haven’t heard of any team that had been to multiple tourneys in recent years you just WERE NOT a “big fan” at that time. YOu may be now, but you weren’t then. Remember ALL tourney games are on TV and they were in the 90s also. How could anyone who looks at a bracket not then recognize (or know they have a team) one of the teams later? Sorry, that is just basic stuff.

Do you think any “big fan” will say they never heard of FGCU 2 years from now and they have ZERO history, unlike us (even in 1997).[/quote]

If you are a “big fan” of an ACC school, you don’t take the time to care about smaller schools unless they go deep in the tournament like VCU, George Mason, Butler or even Davidson. We haven’t been deep in the tournament since '77. It sucks, but it is reality.

50

Again—I’m sorry but if you are over the age of 12 and haven’t heard of any team that had been to multiple tourneys in recent years you just WERE NOT a “big fan” at that time. YOu may be now, but you weren’t then. Remember ALL tourney games are on TV and they were in the 90s also. How could anyone who looks at a bracket not then recognize (or know they have a team) one of the teams later? Sorry, that is just basic stuff.

Do you think any “big fan” will say they never heard of FGCU 2 years from now and they have ZERO history, unlike us (even in 1997).[/quote]

If you are a “big fan” of an ACC school, you don’t take the time to care about smaller schools unless they go deep in the tournament like VCU, George Mason, Butler or even Davidson. We haven’t been deep in the tournament since '77. It sucks, but it is reality.[/quote]

Not the argument here. The point is people claiming they were "BIG/HUGE" [size=3]college bball fans[/size] and at the same time saying they’d “never heard” of a team who was in the middle of multiple tourney bids. Sorry, doesn’t sound like a “big fan” to me. Sorry, didn’t mean to rile everyone up.

51

It is not never heard of. I have heard of Trace Adkins. I could not tell you one single song he has sung or what he looks like/sounds like. Same with Charlotte growing up. I grew up in Asheville and could tell you yes Charlotte has a team but did not know how good they were. Could not name one player on their team. I sure as hell could tell you who was on the ACC teams however. I would consider myself a big basketball fan still and had no idea how good Creighton was this year. Had no idea how good Iowa State is.

I had no idea who FCGU was until they beat Miami this year. Just because the team makes the tournament for a couple years and gets beat first second round does not insure the whole country will know who they are.

52

It is not never heard of. I have heard of Trace Adkins. I could not tell you one single song he has sung or what he looks like/sounds like. Same with Charlotte growing up. I grew up in Asheville and could tell you yes Charlotte has a team but did not know how good they were. Could not name one player on their team. I sure as hell could tell you who was on the ACC teams however. I would consider myself a big basketball fan still and had no idea how good Creighton was this year. Had no idea how good Iowa State is.

I had no idea who FCGU was until they beat Miami this year. Just because the team makes the tournament for a couple years and gets beat first second round does not insure the whole country will know who they are.[/quote]

Perhaps you should re-read Dowless’ post that I first commented on ??? ----Here it is for you…

"I grew up in eastern NC watching college basketball as a big fan, but didn’t even know Charlotte had a team until 1997. "

Seriously, you had no idea about how good Creighton is?

53

No. I don’t have cable so I follow the web for sports news. Creighton beat zero ranked teams this year. Never made it to the front page of any websites I visit. Are ranked 22 which doesn’t scream great to me. Hell, six weeks ago Kentucky was ranked 25th and they lost in first round of NIT to Robert Morris. To me Charlotte is a Creighton. From 99-07 they made the tournament 7 times. Had no idea they made it that many times. I would bet most people could not tell you how good Creighton is. Also, the world is far different than it was in 1999. Sports have blown up since then with way more games on TV and 24 hour sports channels. That was 14 years ago.

54

Maybe I should clarify what I consider a big fan. I watched around 2 to 4 games a week on TV. I would consider that better than the average fan. I was also in grade school and high school. Not much opportunity to catch those games on Thursday’s at noon or stay up late watching games. I didn’t know much about the internet until around 1996, and I didn’t read the newspaper as a kid. My point is and I still believe this is true is that if you go to 80% of the state and ask anyone to name 5 basketball teams from the state of North Carolina you will not hear Charlotte’s name called. There are simply no Charlotte fans outside of alumni in eastern NC. ACC fans don’t keep up with CUSA or the A10, but they can still be BIG Basketball fans. I live in Iowa now and no one here cares about the ACC or know half of the teams in the league.

55

No need to clarify. Your previous quote describes me as well. a
I also grew up in eastern NC I had no idea
We had a Final Four until 1998

56

OK guys, obviously we have very different definitions of “big COLLEGE bball fans”. To me, what you guys are describing are big “ACC fans”, not big “college fans”. There is a difference.

By your definitions, I guess Tar Heel WAL-MART fans are BIG bball fans too, since they probably know a lot about Tar Heels and some other ACC teams, but most don’t know anything about anyone else. The point is they only know about a few teams because they are the easiest to follow, watch on TV and buy t-shirts for.

Do you guys realize that during the late 90s or early 2000s that ESPN had a ranking out of the top 100 (I think it was) college bball programs of all-time and we were ranked in the 60s I believe? Point being, we have a much richer history than some seem to realize.

57

So my buddy from Wilmington was in this weekend with his son to tour the campus. He had 1 tour guide say we had 49,000 students and when they toured the dorms a guide told them 85% of people who live on campus go home on the weekends.

We have got to do a better job of selecting who we allow to represent our University to visitors.

58

[quote=“Jimmyhat49er, post:57, topic:27641”]So my buddy from Wilmington was in this weekend with his son to tour the campus. He had 1 tour guide say we had 49,000 students and when they toured the dorms a guide told them 85% of people who live on campus go home on the weekends.

We have got to do a better job of selecting who we allow to represent our University to visitors.[/quote]

THAT is pathetic. :frowning:

59

[quote=“919R, post:58, topic:27641”][quote=“Jimmyhat49er, post:57, topic:27641”]So my buddy from Wilmington was in this weekend with his son to tour the campus. He had 1 tour guide say we had 49,000 students and when they toured the dorms a guide told them 85% of people who live on campus go home on the weekends.

We have got to do a better job of selecting who we allow to represent our University to visitors.[/quote]

THAT is pathetic. :([/quote]

Terrible. Absolutely terrible. We aren’t even close to that number. Where did he get that number (maybe because we are the 49ers, I don’t really know). What I really want to know is if he just came up with that himself, or if someone else told him that. If someone else told him, than that makes it even worse. >:(

60

Hey the 49K makes us sound better, so that’s okay. The 85% go home is unforgivable.