I graduated from the University of Memphis almost 10 years ago (yikes, did I just admit that?), and I hate to admit that last night’s game against Arizona was only the second game I’ve attended. Ever.

No football games. Go ahead, start throwing stuff.

And it’s not even that I don’t like sports. I’m not a huge football fan, but I love basketball. It’s the only sport other than tennis that I played as a kid and still play. I went to Bolton High School which was a basketball school and not a football school at the time. Follow that up with four years at the U of M, and you begin to see why I’ve favored basketball over most other sports. I think it’s in the water.

I’m torn anytime a hardcore tiger fan writes the paper about the lack of support for the U of M, but I also understand the people who are carrying a full load, working part or full-time jobs, and even taking care of family.

I worked about 30 hours a week in college and if I had to go back, I wouldn’t work until I was done. But that doesn’t account for the negligence for the school since I graduated.

It was thrilling to watch the U of M last night, even as they worked to find their groove in the first 10 minutes. The atmosphere at a Tigers basketball game, even 6 years ago when I went for the first time, is indescribable. It has to be experienced, and I encourage any other negligent Tiger alums to get out when they can and support their school in any way they can.

As a fan, I’ve averaged one game every five years. I’m going to work on improving my record.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 30th, 2007 at 6:01 pm and is filed under Online. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.