sports fans. SEC fans are positively kind in comparison.
Some loud mouth asshole fratboy started shoving when I asked for directions to a spot on campus where I was going to tailgate.
Never had any real issues at BC, they're too cloistered in their own thing.
Fortunately I spotted him in time. I also had a 35+ inch vertical leap in high school. I jumped up and he drove under me and rammed the bus. I landed standing on his hood. The cops pulled me off of him when I had him half dragged out of the driver side window and intended to rip his head off. My dad and uncle also pulled me away.
So - my vote is Miami fans are not good.
BTW - he was mad that the bus parked in front of his yard and it was a Bus from the opposing team. His theory was to break the legs of people as they got off the bus and I was next in line when he got there (fortunately it was me and not my parents who would not have been capable of jumping up above cat height or moving laterally out of the way).
In basketball, they don't treat you very well. Football could be a different story -- fanbase isn't nearly as passionate about football, SU's football team usually isn't very good and could be some respect for ND football that isn't there for ND basketball. I missed the '03 game, that's the only other time ND has played Syracuse in football in the Carrier Dome.
I'll likely be back in September.
Treated great everywhere else over the years - OU, Nebraska, Washington, Tennessee, FSU, WVU, Michigan State, UNC, Wake Forest, Georgia, and several others.
their Y2K loss to the skunkbears. I've since given away tix to games against the skunkbears, Texas, and a handful of in-state body bag games. I've never had an bad experience with their unwashed masses, but have seen some pretty awful behavior, enabled & bolstered by the mob mentality.
I've often wondered if the origin of the Ugly American was Tosu fans traveling abroad.
Around campus in the last 27 years so that porch keg party element is a thing of the past. Gameday and tailgating seem to be very corporate, and sterile now. I think OSU has priced out the humanoid factor for the most part.
Avoid the students, and one should he fine. I haven't heard complaints since our 2005 Texas game.
Most of their dirtbag fans have never set foot in a university.
This past season, I noticed the concrete bases on several of the old stadium outer entrances had worn MSU text.
I grew up in Lafayette, so I know they have a hard on for ND. But, I've attended other events and seen their fans do some horrible things, including seeing some Purdue fan slash a Sparty fan with a knife as they were walking past each other.
I have relatives that feared for their lives in the late 80s at the Orange Bowl. That place was dangerous. My friends in the band had bags of urine and hot quarters thrown at them at Ohio State in the 90s.
I've been to Bama, not necessarily in ND fan capacity, and their fans were nice and friendly...even so at the 2012 beatdown they gave us. One of the scariest fan situations I ever encountered was a LSU vs Bama game at Tuscaloosa. The LSU fans were full of hate, alcohol, and God knows what else.
Worse college town: W. Lafayette, South Bend or a statistical tie. I’ve taken the position that they’re equally lousy.
West Lafayette is a true "college town" where a large public university dominates the local culture, but it is not nearly as nice as comparable places such as Bloomington, Iowa City, Ann Arbor, Chapel Hill, etc.
I don't think it's fair to compare WL or most college towns to South Bend, an industrial (or I guess post-industrial) city that happens to have a smaller private university nearby but outside the city limits. Even a famous, elite university such as ND will not have the effect on a town that a much larger school will have on a smaller town.
I personally like South Bend better than WL, but I have family roots in SB and have many reasons to dislike Purdue. Whichever is nicer, West Lafayette is more of an underachiever.
A handful of them thought it would be cool to chant "Jack Coan sucks dick" when ND had the ball. There were women present and small children,and we politely asked them to stop.
They told us to fuck off and leave them at home if that bothered them.
A couple of parents told the ushers, who escorted the Purdue fans out.
They really care about three things and they are second in the state to someone else in all three. This gives them a complex and turns them into generally bad fans.
Football - ND
Basketball - IU
Engineering - Rose-Hulman
you're doing pretty well.
I would have gone with a simple "he learned it from your mom" and called it a day.
Best: Michigan State, Alabama, Florida State, Tennessee.
They were really the only fans who harassed without any sort of provocation.
The Michigan games I went to ('05 and '07) were noon games which limited everything. Michigan State '06 wasn't great. Penn State was surprisingly fine. Been to a bunch of BC games and they weren't bad. Bama fans were painfully nice in the championship game.
I thought pre-game they were really worried about losing... but no.... they were mostly just really sad for us because they knew what was going to happen to ND.
Thanks for empathy...
Brought my kids to that game. Had people getting right in my face, attempting to provoke a fight, while I was walking to the stadium with my wife and two young children. That taught me to investigate the reputation of the other team when considering any road games. The result: the next road game we went to as a family was in Knoxville. Those fans are awesome!
Pitt fans are oddly bad too. Their fans don't show up against their less interesting opponents, and the interest in the team is a galaxy below the Steelers, Penguins, and Pirates.
Yet they have a bravado like they've done something in the last 45 years.
Having been to numerous away games with a target on my back (an ND band uniform), Penn State separated themselves from the field.
Honorable mention - USC students
I was in the lower section at the Orange Bowl against Florida State on January 1, 1996 and FSU fans in the upper deck were pissing on the lower sections. It was disgusting.
are the worst I’ve ever experienced. Never been to a game at Miami. Generally SEC teams are very pleasant.
But I can imagine that on a white out game, they can be quite horrible to the opposition.
was on the visiting team…
Football, basketball & baseball. We've had a bad experience at every game we've gone too. The worst was a basketball game that we almost had to leave because my son, who was 8 or 9 at the time, was afraid of assholes sitting around us who couldn't help but direct their anger at kids.
I was in the band in college and the 1995 Ohio State game was bad. The Weedeater bowl in 1997 where we played LSU at night was the only time I was ever really afraid for my personal safety. Those fans were drunk and scary. I hope they unleash that venom on Brian Kelly frequently.
They have a middling level football team and the last time the basketball team won anything of note was filled with scandal and rampant cheating. I grew up in NC. My family lives there still. And I grew up a NC State fan. Yes, I know. NCSU is the engineering school and you either pulled for NCSU, UNC, or Duke. I chose NCSU.
FSU fans were the coolest with me (us). So many somber faces when it appeared that we were going to be victorious. Some even offered congratulations to us as they were leaving. But then after the phantom Offensive interference call and their subsequent victory, many turned to me in the stadium, and on the walk down the exit ramp, and told me what I already knew. They said that we got hosed. They were happy but also recognized what they just witnessed.
Now Hurricane fans.......worst that I have ever seen. They hate on ND starting in the pregame and never stop being crass and poor sportsmen until you finally get into your car. The biggest bunch of hooligans in my opinion. Whether you are winning or they are crushing us, they are just antagonistic and looking for a fight. One game that ND was losing by double digits, we scored a touchdown to bring the score to within 10 I believe. One of the ND fans stood up and clapped after the extra point and he wasn't taunting nor being extraordinarily aggressive. He just stood up and clapped. Five seconds later, when he was on his way to sit down, he was greeted with the most blindsided sucker punch from the guy behind him. Guy was out for a bit and by the time security got there, Mr. tough guy took off and ran. To make matters worse, many UM fans were imploring him to take off and a lot of them were laughing and cheering this heroic act. I vowed to never set foot in the Orange Bowl again after that incident. Hurricane fans are the absolute dregs of society for me.
After the game, a Notre Dame loss. In which Torii Hunter Jr. was almost decapitated in the end zone and no call was made by the officials.
Walking away from the stadium, a group of male and what appeared to be Texas students gave my daughter and I the double bird while hollering in our face Fuck Notre Dame!
I’m in no hurry to go back to Austin for a game. The city was disappointing as well.
just prior to the 1973 Sugar Bowl. I was in my band uniform, but politely told her we may go to hell, but we will beat 'Bama before that.
Many of the Bama fans dumped beer (or something yellow) on us as we marched before the game in the French Quarter.
Pitt fans in '73 tried to steal hats and plumes as we were leaving Pitt's stadium. Several got the end of the drum mallet I was wielding.
You could have told her we will join you in hell after we beat Bama, but Church Lady would not have approved. Reminds me of the Jonah and the whale joke.
===================================
A young girl and her teacher are arguing about whether humans can be swallowed by whales.
Her teacher says that it's impossible for whales to swallow humans because whales have small throats.
The little girl says, "How can this be? Jonah got swallowed by a whale."
The teacher says, "That's not even a true story."
The girl says, "When I go to heaven, I'll ask him."
The teacher says, "What if Jonah didn't go to heaven?"
The girl says, "Then you ask him."
The ibis is the single most annoying mascot on Planet Earth. No trouble in the stands that I recall, but some folks were rocking our vehicle as we were slowing down to park before the game.
We saw fights all around us in the stands.
Absolutely the fucking worst.
and I was at that game. Unfortunately, I was also at the game in '85. I thought that the '87 team would be motivated to avenge the humiliation of '85. Alas, the Irish wilted in the blistering heat (it was a day game). We were never in the game, and vengeance had to wait another year. I just remember the game as one of the most frustrating games I have watched ND play.
Not only was the outcome sad, the UM people were beyond awful. It was the worst stadium experience I ever had.
The good: Tennessee, FSU (surprisingly), Alabama (arrogant with good reason, overall fine) and most fans who attend a bowl game outside the city of New Orleans.
The bad: Florida, Michigan, OSU, LSU
The Ugly: Purdue
being assholes were the least of everyone's problems.
as we sat amidst PSU fans on the aluminum bleachers in their oversized high school stadium. Lost one of our party (very drunk) at halftime, searched post game all restrooms and medical spots, only to have him wander up to the pre-game tailgating site 2 hours later. His brother was ready to kill him.
Then we drove home to NJ that evening in the snow, right-side tires in the shoulder just to get some level of traction on Route 80. What an awful weekend in a God-foresaken place in the middle of nowhere.
A rare moment for Holtz.
me at an away game enjoy having a conversation about Notre Dame and the game at hand. At Michigan State in 1990 I scalped tickets that turned out to be right in the middle of the Michigan State alumni area. My wife and I walked to our seats with sweatshirts saying "Irish" on them and got some friendly ribbing from the locals. Upon reaching my seat, I turned to the people behind us and held my arms above my head proclaiming "Notre Dame, Champions of the Big 10"...Holtz had won his last 10 games or so against the Big 10 so the people around me laughed a bit and sort of agreed. The assembled Spartans got a bit testy as the Irish rallied for a win in the last minute, but no real problems whatsoever.
At Purdue in 1979 during my senior year, I was walking around the Purdue campus before the game with around 7 fellow students when a similar sized group of Purdue students approached us and starting giving us a hard time. One of the smaller guys in our group was around 5'9" and 150 pounds but was a lefty Bengal Bouts champ in his weight class. He walked up to the biggest one of the Boilermaker loudmouths, asked the guy what the problem was and punched him in the jaw dropping the bigger guy to one knee. Cooler heads then prevailed and everybody went about their business though the Irish lost later that afternoon to Mark Hermann and Purdue.
Maryland was by far the worst--this was during their Friedgen years when they thought they were hot shit.
Pitt was the worst in that 2005 opener and first game for Weis. Pitt students yelling Fuck Notre Dame at me while I was with my children G13 and B9 at the time.
Wound up unwittingly sitting in the Pitt student section in the upper deck before the game, only realizing it when students started filling in mid first quarter. They were obnoxious with their "F**K the Irish" chants until we started crushing them. I was as obnoxious as I have ever been at a football game until the entire section cleared out mid third quarter, tails between their legs. Glorious.
I had a guy wearing horned shoes follow me around and throw Lucky Charms under my feet as I walked. It was by far the most creative and funny taunt I have received. Otherwise, Pitt fans (mostly girls) dropping the f-word in our face was worst we've seen.
There is a direct correlation between one's size/intimidation factor and the amount of heckling they receive. I'm 6' and 260 pounds so I don't get heckled as much as my 5'9' friend who weighs 165.
I was also there, fond memories, don’t recall any couch-burning.
After the 38-0 drubbing in 2003, a group of assholes formed a human chain across the golf course where we parked to force us into a physical altercation, which we thankfully deescalated somehow, but then they proceeded to whip full beer cans at our heads from relatively close distances until we left.
I went to Purdue twice and had casual heckling, and MSU in 2002 and had a super time tailgating with their fans.
We sat around some nice UM fans in the stadium, but the Walmart Wolverines were out in full force that day.
Best experiences have been 2004 Tennessee and 2019 Georgia.
Went to ND games @MSU and was heckled a few times. Once was when I was a student. I remember leaving the game and a drunk MSU student had proudly written an insult for ND fans to read in the grass with spray paint. It read "Noter Dame Sucks!"
Went to watch the Pitt game when Weis had just taken over and their QB was Tyler Palko. Many fans before the game yelled at ND fans, saying "Fuck Notre Dame!" That included some fans coming right up into our faces and giving us the bird. I dislike Pitt fans, but since they perennially suck, I don't I have big dislike of them. Also from that game, at the beginning of the game Pitt fans were standing up yelling "Palko for Heisman!" He basically sucked in that game, and in the middle of the 4th quarter when it was clear ND had blown them out, an ND fan got up and yelled the same thing, "Palko for Heisman!"
I couldn't have been treated more nicely when I went to games @Nebraska, @FSU, and by Alabama fans when I went to the NC game.
I dealt with it. Jerks are everywhere.
A group of adult Ohio St fans were being very verbally abusive towards our friend's 10 year boy (a Wisconsin fan) at one of the Big Ten championship games in Indy. Boy started crying and the mom and boy moved sections
Seriously obnoxious and mostly drunk back in the Davie era.
I think they have mellowed a bit in general.
And though I have never been to a game in Ann Arbor… Michigan sucks
Then they fell off a cliff, and we stopped losing there.