There are two distinct types of college towns in this country. The first is the one that we all know well. Defined by school colors and fight songs, they dot each and every state across the nation.
Each fall, young, fresh-faced students matriculate into the student bodies that inhabit these All-American towns. Upon doing so, they instantly become a part of something bigger. They are now residents of a community that has been built upon the back of a university. As such, the schools they attend are often the only noteworthy show in town, and no one desires, nor attempts, to have things differently. Thus, for the next four (plus) years, their school becomes their life in more ways than one.
Their day-to-day schedule is dictated by sporting events as much as it is by classes. More than just being a presence in the student section on football Saturdays and basketball weeknights, their obligations take dedication. Camping out for student tickets, 8 a.m. football tailgates, 6 a.m. College Gameday tapings, cross-country bowl game road trips, Midnight Madness basketball practices, day-long March Madness parties – it’s all part of the gig.
The other type of college town is vastly different than this ideal breeding ground for alma-mater super-fandom.
These places do not rely on an individual school as their foundation, but still rely on their students as their lifeblood all the same. New York, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Atlanta – they are all self-sustaining, multi-faceted cities that do not require a higher education presence to drive their day-to-day on goings. That being said, those that would shy away from calling them college towns would be mistaken.
It is not that life in this second type of college town is a library-bound puritan one – it’s just different. Instead of tailgates and ESPN tapings, it has disco brunches and bar crawls. Students at the University of Michigan make the trek to Ann Arbor every fall to be a Michigan student, while students at American University descend upon the capital to be a college student in D.C. This doesn’t make Washington D.C. the lesser college town, it just makes the experience of the student vastly different.
This brings us to our current home, the city of Boston. Obviously, it does not take a brilliant wordsmith for one to make the argument that our shiny city on the harbor is the greatest college town in the country. In reality, one only needs to look at the list of schools that call Boston its home to come to that conclusion. That being said, it also falls into that second, less fanatical category of college towns.
For students at all the local schools, the city of Boston serves as their campus, not some otherwise insignificant small town. The stereotypical quad is replaced by Kenmore Square and Boylston Street and the Green Line serves as a quasi multi-campus shuttle. As far as sports, the student sections at the BU men’s hockey games are always packed and Terrier fans are as fierce and knowledgeable as they come. However, 200,000 lunatics are not rolling into town for this Saturday’s game against the University of Massachusetts-Lowell.
Meanwhile, come September, that’s exactly what will happen when the University of Tennessee opens the 2012 football season in Knoxville. Down the road, our friends in Chestnut Hill can print all the ironic Superfan shirts they want, but student bodies in places like Gainesville and Austin may have some gripes about them wearing said shirts within the confines of a half-full Alumni Stadium.
This is not meant to be a slight on anyone – in fact, far from it. I grew up a Terrier hockey season ticket holder, and like most Boston-born kids, I have been to my fair share of BC football games. I am merely saying that while the passion for athletics is certainly a presence on all the local campuses, it is not what drives the city of Boston.
Of course, there are exceptions to every rule, and Monday night provided the annual exception to Boston’s secondary status as a sports-crazed college town. The bars were packed, the alumni were back in town and the students showed up with a rowdiness usually reserved for Avicii or the Barstool Blackout Tour.
The Beanpot may be a uniquely Boston event – there is no arguing that it is a niche event in a niche sport. But it doesn’t matter. Why? Because it is wild time in a uniquely awesome sport. This being the case, for two nights a year, a college sport supplants professional sports and bar hopping. On those nights, the school spirit becomes palpable in the greatest college town in the country.
It might just be enough to put Boston in that other category.
Enjoy the title while you have it, Eagles. With 29 of them in the rafters of Agganis, the odds of a scarlet and white celebration next year look pretty good. I may go to what BC students think is a safety school, but I can still do basic math.
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Interesting thoughts in your article but the headline, “Beantown”?!
Seriously? Are you a student in Boston or a transfer student from Gainesville or Austin?
I was waiting for the usual cheap shot at BC from a Freep “journalist” and didn’t think I’d see it, but then, wham where was your idiotic last paragraph. Enjoy the loss, Fanboy.
Knowing that tears were flowing down your red and white painted faces on Monday night makes winning the game all the more special for us BC fans.
I want to thank you for summing up the majority of the bitter, BC rejects that call Boston University home in one short article.
I’d like to point out the deliciousness of your lack of understanding of the word “ironic.” BC has better attendance at hockey than BU so maybe it’s foolish to take a shot at the BC Superfans? Maybe? Oh I know, you’re taking shots at them for football attendance seeing as you are from a school that had such little school spirit they couldn’t even field a football team anymore because no one went to the games! Great thinking!
Speaking of ironic, you claim to know “basic math.” Your assessment of a “Half-full Alumni Stadium” makes me question your math skills as BC attendance (tickets scanned, not sold) was 80.25% of capacity this season, one of the worst in recent history. That is a bit more than half-full. Perhaps if BU had some loyalty such as this they would not have folded their football program?
Lastly, while it comes as no surprise to anyone since you lack basic math skills, you clearly would never do well in a statistics class either after suggesting BU’s 29 Beanpot banners “in the rafters of Agganis” are a reason for the odds of BU winning next year’s Beanpot being “pretty good.” It’s especially important to point that out as next season, you will have no single player on your roster that I’m aware of that will have ever won a Beanpot.
I’m going to go out on a limb and state that if you had a better understanding of the definition of the word “ironic” and could do “basic math” you would not have ended up at a 2nd tier institution such as BU.
Good day to you.