Mountaineer fans are getting hammered from coast to coast today, so let's pile on with this first-person account from a longtime reader named Mike S. who attended the game last night:
"Well, last April when you made that post called “More on the Morons” about how Flyers fans were so nasty to Penguins fans at the playoff games last year, it kind of inspired me. A part of me wanted to experience this heckling/humbling journey so I made it my goal to make it to one Pens game in Philly this year.
I ended up going to the one in December where Crosby won the game in the shootout. Overall, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected. I’m sure it would have been worse if it were the playoffs or higher stakes, but I never felt threatened for my safety and other than people just coming up to me and saying that the Pens suck and stuff it wasn’t bad. It was actually the worst after the game when Crosby won it and people would just beep their horns at us in the parking lot and shout stuff. One guy a couple rows in front of me wearing a Crosby jersey got a beer dumped on him which incited a small fight where a kid got knocked over. What else can you expect though?
So my next stop on my journey to humble myself was WVU last night. I had read all the stuff about how bad the fans were and everything so my friends and I got 4 cheap tickets to the game. I would definitely say it was worse than Philly.
First, as soon as I got in and walked around some guy threw an elbow at me. As much verbal abuse as there was in Philly, I was not physically harmed. He didn’t elbow me hard or anything but who the Hell does that and bolts away? No other physical harm going to me seat. Just some “Eat s** Pitt” and “F*** the Panthers.”
WV fans definitely hate Pitt more than we hate WVU. They walk around with "F*** Pitt" shirts and one said "If you're a Pitt fan, then your a B***h fan."
America was disgraced during the singing of the national anthem. At every breath the singer took, there were dozens of shouts of “F*** Pitt!” and “Eat S***Pitt” (seeing a pattern?).
The game was just what we expected with the addition of “Suck my Dixon” and other personal attacks on our players such as informing Gary McGhee that he is visually unappealing and not of the straight orientation. You saw the stuff thrown on the floor which delayed the game. You saw Huggins call out the fans. My question is why did the student section cheer after Huggins yelled at them?
The fans were definitely more interested in taunting Pitt than cheering on their own team. I don't think there was a "Let's goooo Mountaineers" chant that wasn't prompted by the scoreboard or their band.
I also thought the West Virginia hick thing was just a stereotype. It’s not. It’s dead on. And the sad part is that Morganhole is one of the more civilized parts of West Virginia.
I don’t really have that high of moral standards- I thought the Pitino stuff and even the “suck my Dixon” was slightly humorous in a college-like manner. But some of the chants last night were out of line and the overall way the WVU fans behaved last night totally sucked. It killed the flow and the momentum of the game. Even some of the casual WVU fans were upset at how the majority of the fans were behaving.
I will say that the atmosphere was very good in there and it is a very loud arena. It’s a real home-court advantage.
Needless to say, I will not be returning to WVU to watch my panthers and I would gladly drive across the state to the trash heap that is Philadelphia to watch the Pens again before I cross the border to WV.
I think Philadelphia fans have been supplanted by the Mountaineer Maniacs."
Thanks to Mike for the recap. And to follow that up, a timely poll question:
I ended up going to the one in December where Crosby won the game in the shootout. Overall, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected. I’m sure it would have been worse if it were the playoffs or higher stakes, but I never felt threatened for my safety and other than people just coming up to me and saying that the Pens suck and stuff it wasn’t bad. It was actually the worst after the game when Crosby won it and people would just beep their horns at us in the parking lot and shout stuff. One guy a couple rows in front of me wearing a Crosby jersey got a beer dumped on him which incited a small fight where a kid got knocked over. What else can you expect though?
So my next stop on my journey to humble myself was WVU last night. I had read all the stuff about how bad the fans were and everything so my friends and I got 4 cheap tickets to the game. I would definitely say it was worse than Philly.
First, as soon as I got in and walked around some guy threw an elbow at me. As much verbal abuse as there was in Philly, I was not physically harmed. He didn’t elbow me hard or anything but who the Hell does that and bolts away? No other physical harm going to me seat. Just some “Eat s** Pitt” and “F*** the Panthers.”
WV fans definitely hate Pitt more than we hate WVU. They walk around with "F*** Pitt" shirts and one said "If you're a Pitt fan, then your a B***h fan."
America was disgraced during the singing of the national anthem. At every breath the singer took, there were dozens of shouts of “F*** Pitt!” and “Eat S***Pitt” (seeing a pattern?).
The game was just what we expected with the addition of “Suck my Dixon” and other personal attacks on our players such as informing Gary McGhee that he is visually unappealing and not of the straight orientation. You saw the stuff thrown on the floor which delayed the game. You saw Huggins call out the fans. My question is why did the student section cheer after Huggins yelled at them?
The fans were definitely more interested in taunting Pitt than cheering on their own team. I don't think there was a "Let's goooo Mountaineers" chant that wasn't prompted by the scoreboard or their band.
I also thought the West Virginia hick thing was just a stereotype. It’s not. It’s dead on. And the sad part is that Morganhole is one of the more civilized parts of West Virginia.
I don’t really have that high of moral standards- I thought the Pitino stuff and even the “suck my Dixon” was slightly humorous in a college-like manner. But some of the chants last night were out of line and the overall way the WVU fans behaved last night totally sucked. It killed the flow and the momentum of the game. Even some of the casual WVU fans were upset at how the majority of the fans were behaving.
I will say that the atmosphere was very good in there and it is a very loud arena. It’s a real home-court advantage.
Needless to say, I will not be returning to WVU to watch my panthers and I would gladly drive across the state to the trash heap that is Philadelphia to watch the Pens again before I cross the border to WV.
I think Philadelphia fans have been supplanted by the Mountaineer Maniacs."
Thanks to Mike for the recap. And to follow that up, a timely poll question:
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15 comments:
WAHHHHHH you lost by 20. shut up
At least we wont have to deal with this much longer since we are going to the big 10
I don't think the score was mentioned anywhere Divac and one of the people upset by the conduct was your coach because he knows it makes WVU look like tools.
Yeah, we got our asses kicked divac.
WVU's had their asses kicked up at the Pete plenty of times.
But their fans and players didn't have to deal with all of the bullshit we saw on TV last night that our fans and players did.
@Mike S.
I am a WVU student and was at the game last night as well. Overall, I think that some of the student’s actions were despicable. The coin toss was unacceptable and the vast majority of WVU students and alumni will agree that there is no place for that. There are a few things here to consider with your analysis. First, I think that you are comparing apples to apples. You probably don’t know the demographics of WVU’s students, but take a walk around Morgantown on a spring day and for every Pirate hat you see you will see 10 Yankee and Philly hats. (It’s known by some students as “The University of New Jersey Morgantown Campus”) While it is in nominally West Virginia’s university, it is dominated by students from Jersey, Philly, and yes even Pittsburgh. Actually, there is a sizable Western Pa. student population and they cheer Eat Sh*t Pitt just as loud as the next fan. The kids causing the trouble are not the West Virginia “hicks” that you allude to, they are the same scum bags chanting “Crosby Sucks”.
And here is the problem; you decided to digress into an ignorant and loosely veiled classist attack. The hick stereotype is dead on? Civilization? What do you mean by that? Yeah, I guess Morgantown is more “urban”, and yes much of West Virginia is poor, but have you been to Central Pa. You will find plenty of trailers and tar paper shingles. You will also find a lot of hard working people who know that it is no sin to be poor; much the same as WV. Also, America was disgraced? Who are you Dick Cheney? The only thing that I heard was a bunch of people singing the anthem. So either you are full of it and trying to pull some BS patriotic attack or you again are tarring an entire crowd because you sat next to a few idiots. Cracking on opposing fans is ok, but don’t feed bs stereotypes to fit your purposes. You said you came to be humbled? Well, ignorant people are hard to humble, but a 19 point loss should take the wind out of your sails.
PS – Love the blog, read it all the time.
WVBucco, you know that comparing apples to apples is comparing one thing to another almost identical thing, right?
Great post WVBucco. Half the people that read this damn blog (which I usually enjoy, btw) are WVU fans, and being skewered by western PA residents that largely share the same demographic as West Virginians gets old.
Yes, whomever threw the coin was out of line and has no sense of perspective. But are "Eat Sh** Pitt" chants the end of the world? When you were in college, you wouldn't have found that at least semi-amusing? Come on, people. Get off your high horse. Last night wasn't a sociological case study. It was a damn basketball game. And one that involved the Panthers getting their asses handed to them.
I think the poll a few weeks ago shows that half of the people that read this blog ARE NOT WVU fans.
@Bocoroth
Yes, I do. My point was that the WVU fans are the same philly fans that he is comparing. Apple (Jersey, NY kids at WVU) to Apple (same kids who go home and grow up to hate Pittsburgh and throw batteries instead of coins). You can read, right?
I personally know WVU alumni who are absolutely embarassed by the whole situation. I have never met a Philly fan who did anything but just argue more why Pittsburgh sucks, pull out b.s. excuses as to why the Eagles are clearly better than the Steelers, and be anything but embarassed or regretful as to how their fanbase is portrayed. It is 2 entirely different levels of passion.
I made a speech at my sister's wedding noting it was ironic having a lot of Eagles fan in attendance being that their always a bridesmaid, never a bride. My brother-in-law's uncle approached me at the head table to inform me that at least the Eagles get invited to the dance....... Well, almost 6 years later, their dance card is still empty.
I think if we looked a little bit closer at the WVU fans who caused trouble Wednesday, they would likely be from the Philly/Jersey area. Just a guess.
I can also say that Cinci fans are making a run towards the top of the list for classlessness after they cheered and chanted the entire time a Pitt player was down in the field injured during the BE title game.
and @ Divac,
I dont think anybody denies who is clearly the better team this year. That doesn't mean you have the right to pelt people in the face with coins.
I also heard about the interruption of the National Anthem, but from a die-hard WVU fan and alum.
wvu does have the better team this yr but thats bc pitt put 2 key players in the nba...but that gives no right for anyone regarless where they are from to throw stuff at the opposing team period...this is not the first time wvu has been called out this yr for their behavior...and if you wvu fans doent want to be mixed in with the morons throwing suff at the opposing team, THAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! Call them out to security or whatever but as far as im concerned, if you sit back and do nothing as all of you did, you are just as idiotic as the ass who threw the coin and are lumped into the same bucket
if it not for the fans, it would have been just another boring college basketball blowout...let's hand it to the wvu fans for making it exciting.
Being lumped in the same bucket, whether for better or for worse, is part of being a fan. You take the good with the bad and we all know it.
Not everything is black and white. As a fan, you have to either make certain concessions about your team and/or fan following or live in denial. I can tell you which world Philly fans live in, and it ain't just a River in Egypt.
We should bear in mind that in the WVU student section,they are students. In Philly, these are grown men in their 30s, 40s, 50s, and beyond. I think that low-brow hijinks is moreso expected from college-aged kids than from " grown adults" with children.
The dynamic does change a bit when someone is injured, however.
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