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The Alumni vs. Non-Alumni Relationship

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theu51

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I am a recent graduate from UM, and joined this site this year. I had been reading a few of the others but never got all too much into recruiting and whatnot until the last 2 years. I have seen in recent posts a big divide between Alumni and the non-alumni South Florida fans. Can someone explain this relationship to me? Why should there be a divide within the Canes Fam? Thanks for the forthcoming explanations. Go Canes
 
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I think it's more brought about by opposing teams fans trying to talk trash to ours. When you go to a road game, you hear, "did you actually go to Miami" and some other nonsense. I remember one game some ******* said that to me, and I replied "yes." His response was "wow, never met one before." I responded by saying, "did you even go to Florida State?" Which he said that he did, and I apologized to him for having attended Florida State.


Now in regards to thinking one is more of a fan or less of a fan if one didn't go to the school, I could care less if you went to UM or not and support the Canes. I am an alumnus of the school, but don't hold myself in any higher regard of any other fan who didn't attend UM.
 
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As a non alum I think it is deeper than than alumni vs non alumni. I didn't go there but have season tickets and attend 7-12 games a year. I also cheer and attend basketball and baseball games. This is where the divide is I think. Many of the non alumni are bandwagon fans from the 80's who sit back and criticize and never go to games, dont give a dollar to the school and cant wait for college basketball to get here so they can cheer for Duke or Carolina. I get along great with both parties but I fit in better with alumni.

Basically, people who don't vote then ***** about the president.
 
I think you sometimes see it come into play in regards to what's best for the school vs what's best for the football team. Those two are sometimes the same and sometimes not. For obvious reasons, when there is a decision that hurts the football team in favor of the school, non-alumni are more likely to be against the decision than alumni. That doesn't mean every alumni and that doesn't mean the decision is a good one, but rather if your degree is affected by a decision the school makes, you are more likely to care about that decision than someone who did not attend the school.
 
I don't care if you are an alum or not an alum.

I don't care if you hold season tickets or not.

I don't care where you are from.

I do care that you support the program and only the program. I do care that you don't support anti-UM BS (i.e. rivals and Ferman).
 
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Miami04 said:
As a non alum I think it is deeper than than alumni vs non alumni. I didn't go there but have season tickets and attend 7-12 games a year. I also cheer and attend basketball and baseball games. This is where the divide is I think. Many of the non alumni are bandwagon fans from the 80's who sit back and criticize and never go to games, dont give a dollar to the school and cant wait for college basketball to get here so they can cheer for Duke or Carolina. I get along great with both parties but I fit in better with alumni.

Basically, people who don't vote then ***** about the president.
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dont be an *** kisser

I seriously doubt it's the "non-alumni" thats *****ing about the president??? For the most part the people who have something to say about the president whether good or bad are Alumni.

The non alumni usually dont give a **** about the politics of whats going on with the school itself, we are just fans of UM football b/c of how great their teams were and b/c of how bold and confident those guys personalities were on the field... which was something that a lot of young people could relate to.

Non-Alumni just want to watch the football team they grew up being fans of, while the Alumni is constantly worrying about Shalala, Athletic Directors, money allocation, and other things of that nature..... but rightfully so, they went to that school and have a right to discuss those issues.
 
Can someone sum up the Rivals and Ferman comment? I really am not to knowledgeable on the issues of them and am interested.
 
zone3cane said:
Miami04 said:
As a non alum I think it is deeper than than alumni vs non alumni. I didn't go there but have season tickets and attend 7-12 games a year. I also cheer and attend basketball and baseball games. This is where the divide is I think. Many of the non alumni are bandwagon fans from the 80's who sit back and criticize and never go to games, dont give a dollar to the school and cant wait for college basketball to get here so they can cheer for Duke or Carolina. I get along great with both parties but I fit in better with alumni.

Basically, people who don't vote then **** about the president.
Click to expand...

dont be an *** kisser

I seriously doubt it's the "non-alumni" thats ****ing about the president??? For the most part the people who have something to say about the president whether good or bad are Alumni.

The non alumni usually dont give a **** about the politics of whats going on with the school itself, we are just fans of UM football b/c of how great their teams were and b/c of how bold and confident those guys personalities were on the field... which was something that a lot of young people could relate to.

Non-Alumni just want to watch the football team they grew up being fans of, while the Alumni is constantly worrying about Shalala, Athletic Directors, money allocation, and other things of that nature..... but rightfully so, they went to that school and have a right to discuss those issues.
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Really? In the context of this board you don't think there are non-alumni complaining about Shalala? I think there are both alumni and non-alumni who complain about her when it is perceived that she is doing something to hurt the team. Now if you are talking about the engineering department getting more money than the science department; yeah I dont think any non-alumni care (and most alumni on this board probably wouldn't either).
 
Half of our fanbase consists of people who root for Miami in football and UNC/Duke in basketball.
 
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Good topic.


Im not sure I'd call it a "divide" but I guess there is some truth to that label. Here's some random thoughts on the issue:

For those of us who grew up in South Florida back in the day, we used to go watch the Canes because there were no other teams to watch. I gew up watching UM baseball. This was long before the marlins, Heat, Panthers, etc... For guys that were from my older brother's era, they were here prior to even the Dolphins. So to us, UM was sort of the home town team. When Schnelly got here and really focused on local recruiting, it really cemented our "relationship" with UM athletics. Players wanted to come here to represent south Florida, not specifically UM.

Back in those days, UM was academically known throughout the country as "Suntan U." It was known to be a place where spoiled rich kids from the northeast could go to college, hang out on the beach and get a relatively easy degree (I think bomb is a perfect example of this :p ). When Donna came to town and really started improving the academic standing, many of these spoiled rich kids felt that the value of their degree would increase with UM recent academic rise. I guess there is some merit to that but for those of us who did not attend UM, its kind of laughable.

In my opinion, UM is at its best when they focus on connecting with the local market. The bulk of UM students will leave the area after college. How often can they be expected to fly in to attend sporting events? If UM wants to thrive in this area, they NEED the local market. Again, many of us grew up watching UM well before we ever got to college. I guess we have sort of an arrogance to our mindset. We tend to feel that we were here long before the Tad Foote's and Donna Shalala's of the world, so we feel a sense of equity. Real, earned or otherwise, Im not sure, but we feel it.

I will put myself as an example. Grew up in south Florida, played college ball out in California (Fresno State). After I graduated, I no longer felt like I had any ties to Fresno State. My charitable donation money goes to UM, not Fresno State. I attend way more UM games than Fresno State games despite the difference in travel. For me, its always fun when I see a kid from my high school or my old neighborhood sign with UM. It brings about a sense of pride in knowing that I was athletically sired in a market that still produces elite level talent. Its not something that I believe the people who became UM fans because they were UM students can appreciate. ANd I guess this is where the disconnect comes in.


/done babbling.
 
with only alumni...Miami would have been shut down in Football in the late 70s...Schnelly gave us a team, hope and wins...and that tradition drew other college grads from other schools to be a fan of Miami including locals of any color creed or religion.......I could care less about RPI or what ever they are. I want solid sports programs from Womens Golf to Mens Football..
I travel to see Baseball, Football and Basketball...Hurricane Club Member for years and of course season ticket holder..living in Fort Myers.

I have long lasting friendships that are Miami alum and not...I used to sit in the 140 section at Sunlife with the Drs and Lawyers..about 75% Miami alums..they sell their high end games to the highest bidder, never come to Noon games and arrived late and left early...You cant stand they will call an usher and have you sit down..So I moved to 131 and love it there...

we need each other for sure...just don't come on a Public NON funded by UM board and ask me if I went there..that is both ignorant and out of line....
I will love Miami until my death, **** or high-water...( both being the last 10+ years)......GO CANES
 
I agree w/zone3cane. Non-Alumni just want the team to win and represent the brand as strong, fiery group of young men that don't back down to any other team. I perceived that from 2003-2010 that Alumni were okay with having a team that is more in line with the Duke's and Wake Forest. Nice guys just having fun and 7-9 wins a season is good. However, it seems now that there seems to be a more favorable goal that both alumni and non-alumni both want to see--UM kicking *** and taking names again.
 
I second the comment that this is manufactured by FSU and UF fans, which is a joke since the majority of their fans never set foot on their campuses.

I'm one of those fans who is not an alum but feel very connected to the school. My family has had football tickets since the 50s. My mother taught at Miami in 70s and 80s before going over to FIU. My father teaches some courses at the Med School.

I went to almost every Miami football game from 85-96 when I went to college. We had basketball season tickets and I went to a lot of baseball games too.

I got into Miami but wanted to go away for college since I grew up in Miami. I got into UM Law but decided not to go to law school. I went to FSU for grad school because I wanted to work with a specific professor for my dissertation. It was also awesome being at FSU from 2001-2006 since we owned them for most of that time.

My point? I hate it when fans of other teams question my "fandom" since I'm not an alum. What was I supposed to do? Stop rooting for the school and team I grew up loving when I turned 18.

Lastly, even though I'm not an alum, I still take pride in the academics of the school and unlike some fans, I'm a fan of the university as an whole, not just the football team or the athletic department.
 
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For those of us who have attended UM, we know that the majority of the student body (at least in the past 5 years) doesn't care bout our football team. It's sad, but it's the truth. There is a direct correlation between the rise in our academic rating and the apathy for sports from the student body. This presumably continues once they're alumni.

As such, we need all the fans we can get. Alumni or not. Even if every single student and recent alumni living in the SoFla area came to every game, that wouldn't make a dent in a 72,000 seat stadium.

The unfortunate fact is that the fans who get the worst rap from opposing fans are those with no affiliation to the school. Whether that's justified or not is a different question -- I think it's not.

Nobody really cares about the kid who made the unfortunate decision to go to UF or FSU, and thus roots for UF or FSU. The fans of those respective schools who really bother people are the 2-toothed hill billies who don't have a GED, ride around with a confederate flag and UF/FSU sticker on their Ford F-350, and talk crap about UM. We too have our fair share of ****** fans. That's life.

With all that said, I think UF/FSU fans are much more obnoxious than ours, but I'm a little biased.
 
CanesLaw, I respect your opinion but I can say I am part of that student body in the past 5 years who attended Miami, and frankly I'll admit I didn't grow up a Miami fan (From the northeast, I guess you can say I cheered for Rutgers and Cuse). I never necessarily had a college sports team, but I remember always rooting for Miami when they played for some reason, but wasn't a fan per se and wouldn't get upset at losses. Obviously that all changed when I decided to go to THE U. I can tell you that I eat sleep and bleed Canes Sports, and so do a good amount of my friends. I was one of 20 students going to every basketball game back in 09-10 when we came in last place in the ACC. While I agree with generalities that the overall student body may not care as much about Canes sports as the past, that is definitely not true for everyone. It was refreshing to see the kind of support the basketball team got this past year on campus. They were superstars, larger then life figures. Thats how I imagine Irvin, Lewis, Taylor, etc back in the day, just even bigger.

Much respect to all those long time Canes fans.
 
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What gets me is reading some of the hate Shalala gets from people on this site. I guess I understand it though now thinking about how Miami sports have not been the same once she came. But I can tell you that as a recent student, I've never seen someone so loved before. No one on campus would ever say a bad word about her, she was a celebrity of sorts, a rockstar, and one of the most beloved people I've ever seen. So it is interesting to see some detractors of her here, because I never really experienced that before.
 
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theu51 said:
What gets me is reading some of the hate Shalala gets from people on this site. I guess I understand it though now thinking about how Miami sports have not been the same once she came. But I can tell you that as a recent student, I've never seen someone so loved before. No one on campus would ever say a bad word about her, she was a celebrity of sorts, a rockstar, and one of the most beloved people I've ever seen. So it is interesting to see some detractors of her here, because I never really experienced that before.
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I think you will find that many of us who are market-based UM fans still have a very high opinion of Donna Shalala. She truly is a rock star IMO, and one of the most capable people Ive ever witnessed. That said, as was noted in the Donna thread, she catches **** from us, I THINK, because of her dismissal of the market-based fans. I think Donna wants the local community to support UM, but she doesnt want us to have a say in anything. Thats a tough sell for people like me.
 
theu51 said:
What gets me is reading some of the hate Shalala gets from people on this site. I guess I understand it though now thinking about how Miami sports have not been the same once she came. But I can tell you that as a recent student, I've never seen someone so loved before. No one on campus would ever say a bad word about her, she was a celebrity of sorts, a rockstar, and one of the most beloved people I've ever seen. So it is interesting to see some detractors of her here, because I never really experienced that before.
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Agree 100% with you here - that always stuck with me. Shalala has done wonders for the university and is universally loved on campus.

I suppose it goes back to the differences in people having a vested interest in strictly athletics (generally non alums) versus people who have a vested interest in athletics AND academics (alums who are seeing their UM degree increase in value since Shalala took over).
 
i went to UM for undergrad and i was born and raised in Miami so i experienced both sides of hurricanes sports. i love that i got to go to the school i loved growing up and as other alumni know, its a great experience at Miami. its more than just sports and i think thats where some conflicts lie. some non alums just love miami football, which is fine and nothing wrong w that since there are more non alumni fans than alumni fans, but dont care much about the school as a whole. Alumni, or at least in my case, love the school and everything about it beyond football and that stems from the memories you made there during your 4 years at the school. as far as students not caring, that is a misconception. obviously not every student cares for sports but thats like that at every school. students did show up to the football games, made the student section rowdy, and did support the athletic teams. obviously, during recent years its tough to get everyone to be super enthusiastic about the teams, but thats everywhere tho. Florida had trouble selling student season tickets last season and extended their student ticket deadline even further into the summer this year. to the person who said he sat in 140 w the old alums, thats the problem u sat w the old alums. in the young alumni section, i can tell you no one cares if ur standing up (in fact you should be standing up).
 
Over the past ten years, the non-alum HAVE to be fanatics to stick with the Canes. And they are. It's a **** of a lot easier if you're an alum to pull for the Canes.

We start pulling down a bunch of wins, you'll once again see South Florida light up as Canes fans. And they won't be alumni.
 
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