If you're reading these pages in the traditional Western left-to-right pattern, you probably have yet to read the column to the right of this one. My esteemed colleague has used her alloted space to argue that Ball State Univervsity has no school spirit, and that our beloved campus is in dire need of a pick-me-up.
I respectfully beg to differ.
I will be the first to admit that I don't show much school spirit of my own. I bought a few Ball State t-shirts my first few weeks on campus, and . . . well . . . that was about it. I've been to precisely one football game in five years (not counting today.) I've never worn red and white beads, I've never painted my face, I've never done push-ups for points scored and I've never been to the Homecoming Parade. I even trash-talk the football team on a semi-regular basis.
But God help the person who badmouths my school within my hearing.
I, unlike my counterpart over there, went to a high school with a pretty good sense of athletic enthusiasm. I know what overwhelming school spirit feels and looks like, and I can honestly say if that kind of excitement swept Ball State, I would run screaming. Such frenzied expression of football fervor would probably end in either a riot or a revolution, with the administration barricaded in its offices and the mascot's head on a stick.
Luckily, we're too laid back for that.
School spirit is supposed to get into your blood, but I prefer to think of it as the blood itself. It doesn't make a big deal about itself; in fact, most of the time you can't even see it.
But don't assume just because it's invisible, it isn't there.
If six thousand students go to a football game, that's a good third of the campus population. So what if the rest of us follow other pursuits on Saturday afternoon? It doesn't mean we all don't care. I would estimate that no more than 10 percent of the student population at Ball State has no vested interest whatsoever in the athletic programs here. The rest of us may not paint our torsos red and run screaming through the end zone every time we make a touchdown, but we care.
Oh, yes. We care.
Ball State's school spirit runs deep and silent, despite the low attendence at games and other events. To be honest, I was never surprised by the low numbers: It's not like we're the Longhorns or the Boilermakers or something. We're just the Cardinals. We don't win championships year after year. We can't watch our games on TV every weekend.
But for what we have to work with, I think we do all right.
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