This should not be a surprise to me.
I have an extra ticket to the Minnesota game. I asked a friend of mine if he wanted to go with me. The ticket has a face value of $50 and I was just going to give it to him at no charge. He is a fellow UI alum, he is single with no girlfriend and we both live in Champaign. He did not have anything going on that day. He declined my offer. He said he just could not sit through bad football. I can't say I blame him. I am sure if we had an Alabama type team and our opponent was the Tennessee Dental Tech of the Immaculate Word Tooth Fairies, we were 56 point favorites, and we were playing in a blizzard he would want to go.
I had posted earlier this year on the basketball board that I was at Baxter's on Valentine's Day while we were playing Indiana. Not one TV screen there had the game on (although I was recording it anyway). They were all tuned to the Winter Olympics. I am sure if we had a good team, nobody would have forgot to put the game on one of their TVs without someone having to ask for it.
I was at the Northwestern football game last year. Grange Grove was a ghost town. I get the fact that it was Thanksgiving weekend, it was cold and we were huge underdogs but it was still sad to see that.
None of this surprises me. It just makes me sad that even the Champaign-Urbana community gives up on their local team during bad times. It is to be expected of course. We have no real tradition like Nebraska who even though they are 1-6 right now, the stadium is still packed. And let's not fool ourselves about basketball. We have might have had more success in that sport but we are no where near the likes of Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, etc. and we don't have the legacy that Indiana has and that's why its easy to get a seat to those games these days.
FWIW, I lived in West Lafayette in the mid-90s during the Jim Coletto years. No one went to Purdue football games. The joke back then was a local radio station was giving away prizes. Second place was two tickets to a Purdue football game. First place was a written note excusing the first place winner from attending the game. My, times have changed.
I have an extra ticket to the Minnesota game. I asked a friend of mine if he wanted to go with me. The ticket has a face value of $50 and I was just going to give it to him at no charge. He is a fellow UI alum, he is single with no girlfriend and we both live in Champaign. He did not have anything going on that day. He declined my offer. He said he just could not sit through bad football. I can't say I blame him. I am sure if we had an Alabama type team and our opponent was the Tennessee Dental Tech of the Immaculate Word Tooth Fairies, we were 56 point favorites, and we were playing in a blizzard he would want to go.
I had posted earlier this year on the basketball board that I was at Baxter's on Valentine's Day while we were playing Indiana. Not one TV screen there had the game on (although I was recording it anyway). They were all tuned to the Winter Olympics. I am sure if we had a good team, nobody would have forgot to put the game on one of their TVs without someone having to ask for it.
I was at the Northwestern football game last year. Grange Grove was a ghost town. I get the fact that it was Thanksgiving weekend, it was cold and we were huge underdogs but it was still sad to see that.
None of this surprises me. It just makes me sad that even the Champaign-Urbana community gives up on their local team during bad times. It is to be expected of course. We have no real tradition like Nebraska who even though they are 1-6 right now, the stadium is still packed. And let's not fool ourselves about basketball. We have might have had more success in that sport but we are no where near the likes of Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, etc. and we don't have the legacy that Indiana has and that's why its easy to get a seat to those games these days.
FWIW, I lived in West Lafayette in the mid-90s during the Jim Coletto years. No one went to Purdue football games. The joke back then was a local radio station was giving away prizes. Second place was two tickets to a Purdue football game. First place was a written note excusing the first place winner from attending the game. My, times have changed.
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