I have not been to Tech game in a long time. What I have seen on TV, though, is similar to what is seen at most other games on TV. It is a sign of the times that the students are much more rowdy. I would hope the Tech students decide to police themselves a bit better in the future at all sporting events, especially football and basketball. I love the atmosphere at Tech, but hope it never reaches the same plateau on which those from some other schools reside. The public in general has become more openly blatant in their vulgarity. Let’s hope Tech takes the lead in showing other schools’ alumni and students that they can still be loud and supportive without being belligerently gaudy, too. WRECK ’EM!

Back in late 70’s -early 80’s, the student section was next to the band..which I really liked. This was also before ‘tortilla throwing’ (I have been upset w/myself for years because we didn’t think of it!!) but certainly not before sneaking in a flask. My friends and I were looking for a very ‘creative’ and ‘innovative’ way to sneak our bottles in. Back then, they hadn’t started selling the large foam "Guns Up’ thing that slips over your hand. So, with necessity being the mother of innovation, we made our own ‘Guns Up’ foam hand..except it was HUGE. We made it about 3 feet tall. Of course being this large the interior cavity was also exceptionally large….and when we walked up to the gate (of course it was on my hand which was firmly gripping my bottle) waving that thing around, everybody was so impressed that they never even thought of checking inside it. I don’t remember much after that…………

Sooooo…I guess the student section has been a little on the "rowdy " side for about as long as I can remember.

In the mid-80s and early 90s, we didn’t field a really good team very often. The games back then were more of a social gathering than anything else. You could venture over to the west side (back when you could move between both sides of the stadium freely), and look back at the student section to see about half the kids just looking around and chatting up the gal next to them – totally ignoring the inevitable whipping we were taking.

We snuck in the flasks and Schnapps bottles and drank like convicts on parole, but didn’t really get rowdy in the sense that PJ is talking about. Most of the kids usually left either at halftime or the start of the 4th qtr (we were usually totally out of the game…and liquored up enough to need a nap if it was a day game). We’d head over to J. Pat’s, Bash’s or On Broadway to continue the party if it was a night game.

It was fun and we supported the team, but not like it is for the kids now. Today’s students actually have a football team to get passionate about in a competitive sense. That tends to ratchet up the intensity of the crowd all the way around. Not to mention that, even as recently as 80s, college kids seemed a bit more restrained and had at least a little bit of respect for those who might be offended by what was said. I remember several instances when the guys would pipe down with the cussing if a “parent or grown up type” happened to stroll by.

Change…

Some pretty silly things happened in the 80’s too.

We wanted some “independence” from our parents so we sat in the end zone (bleachers under the old athletic offices) next to the student section. It was a miserable game – Texas was thumping us good by halftime, and it was freezing. By the time the Texas band came out, there were maybe 15 people in the end zone. A student came over, rounded up all the empty drinks with ice in them, and threw it down at the UT band. He ran off, and when the band members looked in the stands, all they saw were 4 kids laughing their butts off…we received many death threats.

There is no question that the language has denigrated to a point that borders on embarrassing. In an era of “shock jocks” and the media’s looser interpretation of what is “explicit,” the filter is being removed from students because nothing is too offensive, too profane, or too shocking. The envelope is continually pushed with the shows kids watch on MTV, VH1, etc…I mean just the other day I saw an ad for a show on MTV where a guy walks around naked and all they do is blur his privates out…come on! How’s a kid supposed to have a filter or respect for others when this kind of behavior is being glorified?

The other problem is binge drinking. Most college kids are underage and the incentive is to drink as much as possible as fast as possible. After all, you don’t want to get caught with a beer in your hand and get a ticket! There’s nothing wrong with a few drinks, but maybe I agree with the Europeans on this issue…the age shouldn’t be 21. Maybe then it wouldn’t be such a crazy, new, or experimental event when alcohol is introduced as a tool to psych up for the “big game.” Booze always has and always will be a big part of sports. The thing that can’t become decoupled from this is personal accountability. “He’s drunk” isn’t an excuse for your buddy who just offended an opposing fan or cursed in front of kids.

I am extremely jealous of what these kids have to support with today’s team. The tent city, the intensity of the crowd, and the importance of the games make for quite the atmosphere at the Jones and for the students.

For the students I’d say, keep it loud, but keep it proud. Don’t let the Jones become a place like the old Veteran’s Stadium where they had to put a municipal court in the basement!

I have to say that when I never missed a home game, and would wait an hour or more before the game just to jockey for good spots in the pit of the student section. That being said, this is one INTENSE place these days, and yes it gets a bad rep from some of the media reps that happen to be alums from A&M and UT, but we were all VERY proud of the environment we created. It was nasty and rough, and we kept the opposing flag waving fans to where they belonged… the visitor section. And yes, we were known for heckling the opposing team, but there were many cases where there were definite effects that showed up on the playing field (fumbles, picks, etc), followed by worried looks back to our section.

This all being said, at Tech we dont have the luxury of a 100,000 capacity stadium, and what we lack in numbers we make up for in passion. Yes we can be vulgar, yes we can be loud, and we most definitely do not take well to visitors in our student section… but all in all I think it adds to the underdog status we all carry as a team and fans alike.

I will also say that I was friends with several members of the team my junior and senior year, and they all remarked how they wouldn’t trade our fans and their intensity for anything… they too felt it gave them a big time advantage at home.

There are times now that I watch the games on TV and you can make out the cursing chants, and yes I do shake my head a little… but all in all I just love that the students are still that hardcore. I would much rather have fans that were too much, and over the top, then passive fans that sit back all game and don’t really make a difference in the close ones.

The bottom line is that we have created one of the most rowdy environments to watch a game in (at least in the big 12), and that is something to be proud of! And at least we aren’t throwing batteries on the field anymore (which apparently the fans were into a few years before I got there)

I agree with pretty much everything Vassago and ttutyler said. One thing I really could live without though that a lot of the students continue doing is changing the words in the fight song from “We will hit ’em, we will wreck, hit ’em wreck ’em Texas Tech” to something much, much more vulgar. To me, it kind of makes of mockery of the real words and of our school because the song’s real words are relegated to cuss words. Other than that, I love our passion and underdog mentality, and and get very involved in it myself. I was screaming as loud as I could the whole time at the UT game, and personally, that was the loudest, and most pumped up crowd I have ever seen at any sporting venue! When Crabtree scored, WOW….. SOO LOUD!!!!

Every campus has some idiots and drunk kids who go too far… I don’t care for the chants that make use of obscene language (the F word), because there are kids and a lot of older alumni there and I just think it’s unnecessary. I see that at other stadiums too, though, but at Tech it seems to be more common.

Personally, though, I just don’t get the students who pull the bleachers out. I don’t understand that. I’ve seen it firsthand, and it just seems disrespectful to your own university. It’s not like bringing the goal posts down, that’s fine, the stands is another thing.

Great tailgate scene at Tech, with generally, very nice people….

Sorry if this has already been said, but frankly you guys got too windy on your posts for me to sit and read through every line of every one of them.

In my opinion, and it seems to gel with what everyone is saying, is that the student section became non-family-friendly when you got a family/stopped being a student. It is more of a personal change, right? As a young single student you were willing to do some questionable things and consider it nothing but good fun. But as a ‘civilized’ adult with a family you would never take your family to the student section, nor be caught doing the things the students do.

The student section has changed over time, but so have people. I think the line between family-friendly or not still gets drawn at the 30yrs old/ wife and 2 1/2 kids with a dog in the suburbs mark.

I was at the Big 12 championship game at Texas Stadium a few years ago when Texas was playing Colorado. The stadium was 95% orange with one sliver of Black and Gold in the corner of the endzone. I can’t stand ut so I was cheering for Colorado. Anyway I got pelted with beer bottles, nachos, trash, you name it. I was not being obnoxious or making a scene, just cheering for my preferred team in the game. I really think you will find good and bad everywhere and we are no worse than anyone else.

but if you compare how our student section acts to the student sections (and even the “civilized” sections) of SEC teams… we’re angels…

THE STUDENT SECTION IS CALLED THE STUDENT SECTION FOR A REASON!!! ITS ONLY FOR STUDENTS…I GRADUATED LAST YEAR AND BOUGHT SEASON TICKETS LAST YEAR JUST BECAUSE I DONT WANT TO BE BOTHERED BY 30 COPS AS I WALK IN THE STADIUM.

TAKE THIS ADVICE…IF YOUR BRING KIDS TO THE STADIUM, DONT BRING THEM TO THE STUDENT SECTION BECAUSE ITS NOT APPROPRIATE FOR THEM, PERIOD END OF STORY!

THEY ARE STUDENTS JUST TRYING ENJOY THERE COLLEGE DAYS!