Just when I thought I had it all figured out, Seattle proved me wrong again.
Since I arrived in Westwood more than a year ago I haven’t stopped scratching my head. I came to UCLA because I loved sports, and I thought everyone else would too.
I figured the Bruins would have a fan base as strong as the athletic program itself. The Rose Bowl would sell out every Saturday, and Drake would have at least 3,000 people in the seats for every soccer game.
Of course, reality is seldom what you’d expect. This school gets hyped up about basketball, and even then, not everyone shows up for an early-season game against Prairie View A&M.
I thought I had figured out why. Upon talking to a transfer student from Auburn, one of those sports-crazy SEC schools, I was informed that there’s just too much to do in Los Angeles for people to care about a water polo game. There are so many things competing for the precious free time of an overly studious UCLA student that a volleyball game never makes it to priority No. 1.
And when your team isn’t good, that just kills it. People lose interest fast, and as soon as the football team is out of the BCS picture, more and more people decide not to take that godforsaken rooter bus.
I myself have fallen under the same spell. I skipped out on the Bruins game against Oregon State, claiming I had “too much work to do.”
I lost the faith.
I clocked out on football season.
Work took precedence over supporting my team.
But one trip to the Emerald City stuck down the rational of that transfer student.
If anyone was watching Saturday night, you know that the Washington/UCLA “football” game made you want to gouge out your eyes. Despite how the team may have tried to look at the win optimistically, the bottom line was that the Huskies were just plain bad. Their label as the worst team in college football doesn’t quite do them justice. My high school is having a resurgence, and I really, honestly think the Westview Wolverines could have given Coach Ty’s team a run for their money.
The Huskies couldn’t run, and every pass their quarterback threw hung in the air and landed off target. The Washington defense made Bruin fans forget Kevin Craft’s three interceptions and made our highly criticized offensive line look like a force to be reckoned with.
The Huskies were, without a doubt, the worst college football team I’ve ever watched.
But their faithful still came out to the game, covered in purple.
An ad in the Washington student newspaper told the football team that fans were still behind them and to not worry about their record.
“You play your hearts out, and we’ll scream our lungs out,” it said.
And that’s what Husky fans did. In weather that any Southern California native would deem inhumanly cold, students managed to fill their section, and Washington fans managed to fill seven-eighths of Husky Stadium. They made a “woofing” noise every time there was a kickoff despite the fact that their team had not won a single game.
And you should have seen the pure jubilation on their faces when Washington scored a touchdown and a siren screamed through the loudspeakers.
Despite losing yet again, my friend was smiling after the game and told me, “This was the best game I’ve been to all season.”
Husky students could have gone downtown for the evening and enjoyed one of the nicest urban areas I’ve ever been to in my life.
They could have gone camping in the countryside and had a great time making s’mores with friends while they gazed at the mountains.
And they could have studied in their beautiful library. Washington is one of the top public schools in the nation and the educational gem of the state.
There is no shortage of things to do in Seattle, no fewer midterms, and a lot less traffic between you and where you want to go.
It’s true that Husky Stadium isn’t exactly as far away as the Rose Bowl, and no, this game didn’t come close to the intensity of a contest in the SEC, but what I do know is that Washington fans seem to really care. Their allegiance to being a Husky is pretty high up there on the priority list, even in the toughest of tough times.
How many UCLA students would show up to the Rose Bowl if the weather was awful and if the team was atrocious? I can’t predict the numbers, but I do know now that my theory is erroneous. UCLA’s problem isn’t its environment; it’s the people and their lack of Bruin pride.
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If you went to the Oregon State game then e-mail Stevens at mstevens@media.ucla.edu.