Bradley Students Sports Fandoms
By: Jake Zielinski, Ben Fries, and Madison Pratt
Manchester United is one of the many sports teams that students at Bradley support despite being an English Soccer club.
In the world of sports, there are many different types of fans and the teams they follow. There are the bandwagon fans, the hometown fans, the die hard fans, the casual fans and the fairweather fans. On a college campus, there is a huge diversity of people and the sports teams they follow.
From The Cubs and the Cardinals to AC Milan and the Broncos, the sports teams that Bradley students follow are very diverse. However, the reasons for the differentiation in sports teams is interesting. Whether it be family ties, player ties or even just picking a team different from your family, the reasons to select favorite teams can vary from person to person.
To find out a little more about why people side with certain teams we decided to talk to students and learn more about the origin of their fanhoods.
A common trend with students on Bradley’s campus is the influence of their family and home state on what teams they support. Justin Hill, sophomore sports com major, said that his Chicago Fire fandom came from numerous trips to Fire games. “ I was always a big soccer fan growing up, and my family would take multiple trips to watch the Fire games” said Hill. “Even as my friends would pick their favorite soccer teams from Europe, I stuck with the Fire”.
For junior nursing major Lexi Oswald, it was her hometown that made her become a fan. Oswald grew up in a small town in Wisconsin, so she became a Brewers and Packers fan. Her family and her hometown helped her become the Wisconsin sports fan she is today.
Since Bradley is such a diverse campus, certain sports fans may feel left out as they do not have any other supporters of their favorite teams.
Junior Marshall Macaluso is a lifelong Denver Broncos fan, which puts him in an interesting position as a Bradley student. Speaking on the situation, Macaluso said, “Whenever I visit my girlfriend who lives in Kansas City, it’s fun because the Chiefs and the Broncos are big rivals so I will sometimes get yelled at by Chiefs fans when I’m there. When I’m at Bradley though, it’s a different scenario because no one really cares about the Broncos either way here.” It is that feeling of being left out that many Bradley students who support sports teams that are not the norm on campus are familiar with.
Junior Matt Harrington shared a similar story to Macaluso. “When the MLB playoffs rolled around this year, you saw a lot of support for the Cubs, Cardinals and White Sox around campus which made me feel left out as a Twins fan.” He went on to mention that while it has not affected his overall college experience, little moments such as when friends turn on a game and everyone wants to watch the Bears rather than the Vikings make it hard on Harrington. Research conducted by two professors showed the links that sports fandom has on groups and identity. Students like Marshall and Matt can end up feeling left out at Bradley.
Sports fandom is something that most people can relate to. It is a unifying thing that binds people together and can also pull people apart. Going to college and meeting new people, sports is a topic that is bound to be mentioned. For some people, it is easy for them to relate to other people’s sports teams because of where most Bradley students come from. For people like Marshall and Matt, it can be difficult to relate to other people’s sports opinions on campus. While this is not a dealbreaker for making new friends at Bradley, it certainly is something to think about.