Columnists, Sports

ROUSE: Sports and life after graduation

Editor’s note: The following is a guest column from Joe Rouse, a BU graduate who was a Daily Free Press sports columnist from 2003-06.

What’s it like to be a Boston University sports fan five and a half years after graduation? 

Different. 

There is definitely an adjustment that comes with being a fan after you graduate. During four years as a diehard sports fan, it seems like you know everything about BU athletics. You know when a coaching change happens, when a team wears a different uniform or someone new gets a start. For a lot of us, school and classes seem second to sports – in some ways, attending as many games as you can was part of our duty as college students and fans.

Eventually, it all comes to an end. After spending four years religiously going to games, waiting in line for tickets, checking box scores and reading recaps, you’ll find yourself on the outside looking in. No more sports pass tickets, no more student sections, no more making it to every game, home and away. At some point, real life gets in the way – you might move away or find yourself too consumed with work or family to make it to as many games as you would like.

Over the years your memories of college will fade: memories from classes will start to blend together, you’ll keep in touch with fewer people and there’s a good chance that you’ll end up working in a field that has nothing to do with your major.

But if there’s one thing that will tie you to your alma mater for eternity it is the athletic teams.

For one thing, the Department of Alumni Relations at BU does a great job of gathering alumni together, especially before big events. A pre-game gathering in New York before Red Hot Hockey or near TD Garden before the Beanpot are not only fun and well attended, they are a great renewal of BU spirit that might have been dormant for a period of time.

I’m a bit lucky because I still work on campus, so I’m a little more tied into to the happenings over on Babcock Street than many alumni. It’s great to see that men’s soccer coach Neil Roberts got his 300th win, and it’s awesome to see the field hockey and women’s soccer teams having extraordinary seasons. I keep tabs on women’s lacrosse by trying to work as many games as I can (I run the clock) and it’s great to catch a women’s basketball game on TV from time to time. As far as favorites go, I’ll have an active interest in the woman’s hockey program as long as Brian Durocher is the coach as he’s one of the best people I’ve ever met.

But while it’s good to be in the loop on the athletic department in general, there are really two sports that grab your attention the most (at least until we get football back): men’s basketball and hockey.

We’ve been lucky in the last few years because these two sports have given alumni a chance to reconnect with the university. Last year, alums across the country got on board with the excitement of finally having a men’s basketball team in the NCAA Tournament. Even before the team got to that point, however, fans packed Agganis Arena for the finals of the America East Conference championship in what was for me a highlight of my time as a fan at BU, regardless of whether I was a student or not.

As almost anyone would agree, the real icing on the cake came in 2009 when the hockey team took home a national championship. That run to the championship was probably the most fun and exciting time as a BU fan. From pre-game events to post game celebrations, no other event has stimulated as much Terrier pride. Sure it was a special event, but if you had told me years ago that my favorite BU sports memory would come after graduation, I’d probably tell you that you were crazy.

Of course, that doesn’t just happen by accident – the trick is to plant those seeds while you are still in college. That means that you should take the time to go to as many events as you possibly can. Sure, it might not seem like much fun to wait outside in the cold for tickets to a hockey game, but I promise that when you look back on your college career, you’ll be glad that you did. I can tell you from experience that the friends you make at hockey or basketball games have the potential to last a long time.

The moral of the story is that you should enjoy each and every minute that you have as a student. The bonds that you form and the friends that you make have the potential to last a lifetime. But the connection you have to BU doesn’t end when you are handed a diploma — thanks in large part to the athletic teams, that is a connection that never ends.

Website | More Articles

This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.

Comments are closed.