University Pride

This weekend UCLA will take on its local rivals, the University of Southern California (USC), in their biggest football game of the year. The atmosphere around campus in anticipation of the event has been electric with the buildup culminating in a rally held last night to burn an effigy of USC’s mascot ‘Tommy Trojan’. The fire was surrounded by students wearing ’doUSChebags’ t-shirts and chanting ‘fight fight fight!’.

USC's mascot 'Tommy the Trojan' on flames

The event has had me asking why UCL, or for that matter any university in the UK, does not take such pride in university sport? Aside from the rare exception, the Henley Regatta being perhaps the most notable, the scale of money and excitement is not a patch on the US. While American sport is flooded with million-dollar sponsorship contracts, sensational fandom and controversy, British university sport is a far more modest affair. Instead it is often limited to a small pitch in the middle of an obscure field, watched by six or seven fans (or more likely passing dog walkers), and sponsored by the local pharmacy whose main obligation is to provide sliced oranges for the players at half time.

UCLA Bruins fans filling the 92,542 capacity Rose Bowl Stadium, larger than London's Wembley Stadium

Having conducted a little informal research, I tried to find out why students in the US are so passionate about college sports. Responses varied from ‘its a great way to meet people’ to ‘because the US is the best country in the world, that’s why!’ However, a frequent reason that I found particularly interesting was that supporting your college team is a great way to express pride in your university. 

Back in the UK university pride is not as rampant and I think this is a shame. Of course rivalries do exist, KCL versus UCL being a prime example, but never has this led to the burning of a foe’s mascot. In fact I don’t even know what UCL’s mascot is, let alone Kings’! 

Walk around campus here and you will see students - or ‘Bruins’ as they are proudly known - wearing an enormous variety of UCLA branded t-shirts, sweaters, and even shoes. Drive around Los Angeles and you will see ‘UCLA Alumni’ license plates. Of course this is great merchandising and a clever form of advertising for the university, but I believe its more than that. At UCLA you feel part of a movement and its a fantastic experience. At UCL wearing university branded clothing is seen as overly keen and even dorky. Perhaps this is a reflection of UK university students trying to appear cool and nonchalant. However it is not reflective of the entire country where, for example, Premier League Football fandom matches college football in the US.

However ‘footy madness’ in the UK is predominantly dominated by men. At UCLA shared college pride brings people together, creating a great sense of community amongst all members of the university. With university life in both countries being a social and academic endeavour, it is interesting to note that in the US 28% of married couples meet at university versus 19% in the UK (Macskássy 2013; TSR 2014). In my opinion this is perhaps because the shared joy and sadness at UCLA’s win or loss in a sports game is a much more valuable bonding experience than drunken sports nights at Loop. 

References

Macskássy, S.A. (2013) ‘From Classmates to Soulmates’ (WWW), Menlo Park: Facebook Research (https://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook-data-science/from-classmates-to-soulmates/10151779448773859; 24 November 2015).

TSR (2014) ‘One fifth of British students meet the love of their life on campus’ (WWW), Brighton: TSR (http://tsrmatters.com/one-fifth-of-british-students-meet-the-love-of-their-life-on-campus/; 24 November 2015).