Most Bruins share my sentiment on principle, but my hatred reached a whole new and personal after the 2007 game at the Coliseum. The end score was 24 - 7, but this had nothing to do with it. Here's what went down.
In 2007 I played tenor sax for the UCLA Marching Band. I knew that as a UCLA band member I was going to be the target of severe disrespect and hate but I knew that and I was cool with it. During the pregame show I anticipated the boos and heckling, but I certainly did not anticipate seeing 10,000 U$C students turn their backs to us and flip us off. And it wasn't even like it was a couple douchebags doing it; the douchebaggery was consistent across the entire student section. So whatever, I learned long ago that the Trojan stereotype of being arrogant and classless jerkoffs is NOT a stereotype. It is well rooted in solid fact. So I was like whatever, I can take this.
Then we get back to the stands to set up for the pep band. That's where I found out that U$C has not allotted a single seat in the Coliseum for the band, something that we do for their band and all other visiting bands at the Rose Bowl as a common courtesy. Instead, U$C built us a metal pen, which is probably better described as a cage for us in somewhere off to the side of the stadium. Wtf. It gets worse. Our band was very close to their band (which is a really bad idea, the bands hate each other with as much fervor at the football teams do). Now objectively speaking, the U$C band is extremely inferior to the UCLA band in terms of the fact that they suck ass at marching and music, essentially meaning they can't do either part of marching or being a band. Case in point: their band was microphoned. Apparently they can't be loud enough on their own, they have to be electronically amplified. I'm was with that, but I was NOT ok with the fact that they placed two giant speakers facing towards our band, effectively drowning us out and giving Bruin fans a disgusting and endless regimen of Conquest, Fight On, et. al. F*cking assholes. I can't believe their arrogance.
But the worst was yet to come. In terms of arrogance, I have not and will never in my life experience anything more ridiculous than the 4th quarter 'lighting of the torch'. Oh. My. God. I was pretty much already throwing up in a trashcan from all the tooling/douchebaggery that happened throughout the day. But the torch lighting thing really takes the cake. If anyone here reading has been to a U$C football game you know what I'm talking about when I say the lighting of the torch. For those who don't this is how it goes down.
So the 3rd quarter ends and as a football fan you expect the 4th quarter to begin promptly. No no, not so at U$C. The band plays that song that they play every damn second again and Tommy Trojan starts prancing down the field on his horse toward the torch. For those who don't know, the Coliseum was built for the 1932 Olympics and used for the 1984 games, where the opening ceremonies were held. That torch is still there. So while the whole crowd throbs with their "V" fight on fingers and their Conquest playing and their Trojan prancing, the whole place stews in a U$C spirit soup. It's foul. With much regalia and pomp and circumstance, the Trojan points his sword to the torch where it explodes into flame. The crowd goes completely out of its mind, I finally cave and go in search of the nearest trashcan/U$C sweatshirt.
This description does not convey even one-tenth of the arrogance of the scene. I seriously don't have the words to describe how ridiculous it is. I've seen tradition in college football. I've been to a Notre Dame home football game and they have their historic traditions too. But none of those scream cocky arrogance. Furthermore, I must say that Notre Dame fans are very classy individuals; when I was there I experienced little to no animosity. U$C fans on th
e other hand are probably the most classless and despicable fans in college sports. Their sense of entitlement and arrogance is astounding. There was one thing that made up for it just a little bit though. During the 3rd quarter I was walking around getting food, still dressed in my band uniform obviously. We had just completed our halftime show and I was hungry. I was stopped by at least three or four U$C alumni and parents who thanked me for putting on an awesome and entertaining field show. They told me they wished their band had half the skill and precision that our band had, and they considered their band a disgrace. So shove it U$C band. Oh and while we're on this train of thought of bands and arrogance, do you know what the tagline for the U$C band is? "The Spirit of Troy: The Greatest Marching Band in the History of the Universe."God I hate U$C. For all you Bruins who will be invading the Coliseum, be sure to wear as much true blue as possible. For those of you who will be going to the Coliseum for the first time, bringing a trashbag might be a good idea: you have yet to see how sickening their arrogance is.
You do realize that the article is about University of South Carolina right?
ReplyDeleteLOL good job Walters.
ReplyDeleteI hate $uc as much as the next guy, but unfortunatly your info is a little off. The Coliseum was built for the 1932 Olympics not the 1984 games.
ReplyDeleteLets not forgot the ketchup packets that were thrown at us
ReplyDeleteI hate them too, but I'd like to point out that traditionally the UCLA student section turns around and faces away from the field when their band plays (also during the team's entrance if I remember correctly). I know that not many people do it anymore, but still, we did it.
ReplyDeleteI know there's a lot of douchebaggery to remember, but you HAVE to include the ketchup packets that were thrown at us and stained our BRAND NEW never been worn before that week uniforms. The band had to pay to send several uniforms to the cleaners because of that.
ReplyDeleteI also remember that really high pitched squeaky voice telling us to "Kill yourselves" while we were marching, though I find that experience kind of funny.
The best part of these pro-bruin articles is that you come off as the "holier than thou" pure entitlement attitude. That's a riot.
ReplyDeleteLet me ask you this. If USC or any part of USC thereof, is sooo inferior, why do you (UCLA) constantly keep comparing yourselves? Complex.
It's a rivalry, anonymous person who posted on November 29 at 1:15pm. Of course they're going to compare their school to the rival school. You're such a dumbass.
ReplyDeleteBruins, meet kettle, black.
ReplyDeletesimpswim, sit on your hands.
I have to say that the UCLA fans are very abusive and low class. While marching in and out of the stadium I was elbowed in the chest by some chick and kicked in the shins by some guy who was trying to trip me. Other band members had thier faces whipped with towells. Before our pregame performance I stood a bit to close to the stands with my back to the wall and a group of UCLA fans had fun spitting on my cape until a bandmate told me what was going on. The worst by far was after halftime in the bathroom and of course I was an inviting target in full band uniform. A drunk UCLA fan standing next to me pissed all over me and then smiled and said it was an accident. All I could do was walk away in shock. How humiliating for me to have to endure that and how low class of him, shame on UCLA.
ReplyDelete