I just wanted to share this with NNN and check and see if any of you have had similar experiences.
Now it isn’t like I am afraid to rock Charlotte gear when I am out and about. So last night at dinner in downtown Belmont I am wearing a green Kick Off 2013 shirt. A man with his family at a table near us says “I like that shirt.” I said thanks. The kid asks “Are you going to go to the games?” I said absolutely! He said “We are too!” With a HUGE smile on his face. His mom then says “This is the man with the ambulance.” Now I don’t recall ever seeing these folks, but somehow they associate the ambulance with me - maybe they stopped by the homecoming tailgate? We go about dinner and before we leave I stop at their table and ask them if they have seen the stadium in person recently - they say no and we talk a little bit about that. I then asked them if they had heard of the scrimmage in October or the Greek tailgate - they say no but are VERY interested in details. I then ask them about soccer and basketball - they have seats in the opposite alumni corner from 226 for basketball. He hands me his card and says let me know when you guys tailgate - we want to join you.
All of this because we have football. It is a prime example of how this sport is transformational for our fan base. This is a connection that without football would not have been made and it went past football - we talked football, soccer and basketball. And the look on the kids face when talking about football was awesome.
Nice…BTW, my son and I went to the Panthers game Sunday and I decided to wear my 49er football jersey. From walking into the stadium, during the game (and we were actually in a suite)
and walking back to our car I bet I had 10-12 comments on my jersey (all were postive comments and all knew what team the jersey represented).
This made my day. Your story exemplifies the “intangible” aspect of football at Charlotte that everyone speculated about but no one could quantify. That’s because this sort of thing is priceless. Students, alums, and even little kids can unify behind America’s real pastime. That little kid gets to go to Charlotte football games for years and you can bet that he wont forget those experiences when he’s 16 or 17 and starting to consider which college to go to. Loyalty breeds loyalty.
This sort of casual interaction that springs into a relateable really is what football brings to a school. I live right in the heart of SEC country now, and you best believe its the ONLY thing people talk about from August to January. We’re going to get there.
I am originally from Eastern North Carolina. Every time I go home, and wear my Charlotte t shirts, people always ask about our football team. They also tell me they know we have a good basketball program. The ECU fans I have talked to seem to be excited about an in state team being in the same conference as them in football.
I have gotten lots of positive feedback about our athletics, and our university in general.
I moved to Dallas a little over a month ago. If it wasn’t for football there would be absolutely no way in hell anybody around here would know about the Charlotte 49ers. It just so happens that Denton is only about 30 minutes north and there are quite a few North Texas alumni around Dallas and I have had discussions about how we’re going to be playing each other in a few years. They were familiar with the university solely because of football.