Light Blue still better than in 1985

Oh Lions, you try so hard. This weekend’s football game against Yale was kind of a letdown. Here’s Lauren’s recap of the game: you just chilled out for the first half in the bitter New Haven winds, letting the Bulldogs run train all over you. During those halftime minutes, your coach gave you some juice and cookies and you all decided to rally. Great, awesome! After halftime, you were excellent. You decided to pick things up and made the Bulldogs eat 21 points in the second half. Things were looking great for Columbia! Then, you lost. Really heartbreaking stuff.

Chances are you didn’t make it out to New Haven this weekend yourself to hop on the emotional roller coaster that was this football game.

Neither did I.

OK, I’ll admit it: I’ve been kind of a slacker. This season, I haven’t exactly been the big Lions Fan I’ve been encouraging you all to be. Yeah, I watch a few games­­—I just haven’t yet traveled outside of the uptown bubble to watch the Lions compete.

Jacob and Victoria have. So let’s talk about them instead. These two fools have been traveling all around following the Lions. And they have some damn good times, I’m sure.

For anyone who’s going to try to ask me, “Hey Lauren, why would I bother going to games—especially away games? We’re not even that good,” all I have to say to that is... things could be a lot worse. Really. Maybe some of you are aware of college football’s most dismal moments in history, courtesy of Columbia University? But just in case you haven’t been reminded recently, let’s go back a few years and take a look at the ’80s.

Between 1983 and 1988, while most of the world was accomplishing great things—the first Nintendo, the truce negotiations for the Iran-Iraq war, and the official formation of Green Day—Columbia University was truly sucking at football. In those five years, the mighty Lions suffered a 44-game losing streak, the second-longest in major college football history. (We couldn’t even be the best at losing! Embarrassing.)

After about 20 straight losses, things got so bad that Columbia’s own marching band began to play the “Mickey Mouse Club” theme when the players took the field. In the 1985 game against Harvard, the Lions actually looked like they might win—they were leading 17-0 with five minutes left in the third quarter. But the Crimson came back and scored 49 unanswered points in the time remaining.

When the Lions lost their 35th straight, to set a Division 1-AA record, head coach Larry McElreavy was approached by the New York Times to discuss his football program. “I’m realistic,” McElreavy gravely admitted. “There’s not a lot of talent here.”

Pathetic.

Now, in the fall 2010 season, while we’re not on top of college football or even at the top of our league, the Lions are making significant turnarounds. I like to think we’re somewhere in between. Columbia’s always making history. Who doesn’t want to be a part of that?

Even if you have zero knowledge of the sport of football, there is still fun to be had. Considering that most gameday Lions fans seem to come from the marching band—and half of them probably joined for those really fly rugby jerseys—it’s safe to assume that you don’t need to know much about football to have a good time at these games.

I guess I’m a prime example here. Since coming to New York, I’ve been indulging in a good number of Jets games. Before college, I’d never been to a real live football game. I don’t think I’d even watched a real football game ever. At this point in my life, I like to call myself a Jets fan.

Interestingly enough, my newfound love for this team has basically nothing to do with the game of football itself. Really, it comes down to two things:

1: The smell. Mmmm, GET SOME. Love that Dirty Jersey air.

2: The fans. Jets fans are true blue class acts. That’s all there is to it. They’re just such a comforting breed of people—all those white tank tops, obnoxious chanting, and sloppy drunken misdemeanors in the parking lot.

Finding these types of quirks about a sports team is what’s going to make it yours. Our good ol’ Lions have some quirks of their own. In my humble opinion, this weekend’s game against the Bulldogs demonstrated some the Lions’ most endearingly quirky moments. It’s the kind of team that begs you to cheer them on and want them to win. So just give the Lions what they want. Just love them.

Lauren Seaman is a Barnard College sophomore.