End of an era - if you care

Commentary

It's over.

No more cheap jokes. No more apathy. No more income from betting against the Salukis - for now.

It's finished, and I promised myself I wouldn't cry.

SIU football is not a punch line.

What most people, including myself, thought would be a disastrous weekend turned into a prelude to what could be the first winning fall season at SIU since Americans were debating whether Mikhail Gorbachev's birthmark resembled New Zealand or a flux capacitor.

Brandon Robinson did not just pull in a winning touchdown grab last Saturday. He may have pulled Saluki football into a whole new era.

The only question is whether Saluki fans will actually accompany the team should it sail to the uncharted waters of winning football.

"We know that if we win, people will come," Robinson said. "They should change."

Imagine a time when Joel Sambursky and Muhammad Abdulqaadir will have just as much of an opportunity to sign cleavage at Pinch Penny as any member of the men's basketball team.

A time when students can listen to the school fight song without laughing, the end of what Chancellor Wendler referred to as "beer drinking fans" tailgating and never coming into the stadium and an era when students will be eager to see SIU win instead of waiting for them to lose.

But give people time on that last one. The majority of campus is still in a catatonic state of shock that is bound to lower this week's test scores.

No one expected this. Well, no one except the team's players and coaches.

Until the referee threw both hands in the air in the northeast corner of the end zone, fans were expecting what is usually the inevitable.

The team had blown a huge lead minutes earlier, so to most, it was only fitting they finish the job like the bunglers the campus had learned to tolerate.

Some fans even left.

Not in the first half, not in the fourth quarter, but with only 30 seconds left to go.

"I didn't want to see it," senior Stacey Robinson said of what she figured was going to be a choke for the ages. "I knew it was going to happen so I didn't want to see it."

Robinson is a perfect example of a typical SIU fan - afraid of developing a long-term relationship with SIU football because she is afraid of getting burned.

There is a medical explanation for this that could explain why the campus may take a while to embrace the football team.

Many at SIU suffer from a syndrome I became familiar with in my days back at West Chicago High School. Let's call it East St. Louis syndrome.

In West Chicago, there was nothing to take pride in. The football team was awful, winning two games in the four years I was there and not much more when I wasn't. The city was overridden with crime, gang violence and radioactive waste.

While those things were fun, the city was otherwise very boring and bland.

So to cope, the citizens figured out a method of answering the belittling comments that came from Naperville, Wheaton and other cities that felt they were better than West Chicago - they took pride in not taking pride in their city and school.

It's an almost subconscious reaction, and I see this happening at SIU. It's impossible to count how many times someone has said Saluki football sucks, SIU is overrated as a party school or that anyone coming here for academics would have to be a dyslexic crack-baby.

To some students, Northwestern can have its academics, Illinois can have the Bears and Illinois State can have its 7-to-1 female to male ratio.

They are content with their school's shortcomings and would feel uncomfortable if SIU gave them something to feel proud of the way men's basketball did last year.

So it's understandable that students will be hesitant to embrace the Saluki football team despite Saturday's victory.

In the aftermath of the "Miracle at the Mac," five reactions are possible:

1. The New York response

The student body will deliver an ultimatum to the team: win a few more, and we're with you for life.

2. The St. Louis response

SIU students will embrace the team as family and travel with it to help belittle opponents.

3. The Chicago White Sox response

Fans will show up until a losing streak makes their couch seem a lot more comfortable than the bleachers in McAndrew.

4. The Chicago Cubs response

Students will show up and love the team unconditionally whether it wins or loses. Expect a lot more alcohol to be smuggled into the stadium.

5. No reaction at all

Fans will tailgate, drink themselves stupid and press themselves against the fence should anything interesting happen.

Unfortunately, No. 5 is most likely.

Saluki fans don't seem to care about football enough for the New York response, and I doubt the student body will accept the Salukis as family, as evidenced by a girl sitting behind me who screamed unprintable words directed at Joel Sambursky and his hair.

The two Chicago responses are unlikely because the White Sox reaction requires a game to be on television and the Cubs reaction involves unconditional love.

So things will remain the same for the Southern Illinois football Salukis.

I guess a pigskin just can't compete with a six-pack.

Michael is a junior in journalism. His views do not necessarily reflect those of the Daily Egyptian.