Fan traditions stay alive
By Taylor Brown
June 26, 2004 9:00 p.m.
A new academic year at UCLA inevitably means thousands of new
Bruin fans. It also means there will be new faces to carry on some
of the traditions that have become ingrained in the Bruin faithful
over the years.
While the football and basketball squads both competed poorly
last season, game successes do not determine whether the fans will
have a good time at the game. If that were the case, no one would
have had a good time in a while.
In fact, the traditions that carry on throughout every game can
be what keep many fans interested and coming back for more.
What Bruins become acquainted with first is the 8-clap. The fans
do it, the band does it ““ it’s as unavoidable as the
plague, but cheerier.
And during a game against rival USC, there are always several
traditions to keep Bruin fans occupied with persistent jabs at the
Trojans.
With regard to the 8-clap, “F— ‘SC” is often
substituted for “Fight fight fight!”
As most are aware, USC students pay about $40,000 in yearly
tuition, prompting several UCLA fans to dub the campus as the
“University of Spoiled Children.”
Thus, it’s commonplace to see Bruins waving keys or
holding up money when the USC fight song plays, mocking the Trojan
faithful.
“Whenever I see Trojans on campus, I get very
territorial,” senior Sarah Pura said.
Before the rivalry game during football season, a bonfire is set
up a few nights before. On the Thursday before the game against the
Trojans last year, Unwritten Law played in front of a large crowd
at Janss Steps.
“It’s a gut-clenching experience,” said senior
bonfire participant Jonathan Flores. “The Bruin inside you
gets fired up.”
Such traditions during football season hold up during both good
and bad times, but it seems that the quirkiest of traditions come
out during basketball season.
At Pauley Pavilion, the students who sit courtside at the games
are part of tradition themselves. To get those prized seats, Bruin
fans often have to camp out in front of Pauley the night before
until priority seating is handed out early the morning of the game.
The campers are a distinct club on campus during the season.
“The people I’ve met through camping out are the
ones I will talk to for the rest of my life,” Pura said.
“We really bonded over those cold, late nights outside
Pauley.”
Before every game, fans chant the names of each player on the
team and are later led in a “Is this a basketball?”
chant. This prompt is followed by the obvious response from the
rest of the crowd, “Yes, that’s a basketball.” It
follows an obvious pattern from there.
During the game, when a player from the opposing team fouls out,
the student section lets him know it on his way to the pine. Fans
yell “left!” and “right!” for each step he
takes, and when he gets back to the bench, the crowd tells him to
take a seat.
When Arizona State star Ike Diogu fouled out in
UCLA’s 66-58 victory over the Sun Devils last season, he
refused to sit down. But the Bruin fans still counted off every
little step he took while standing over his seat as the final
minutes ticked away.
“It demonstrates that the fans are into the game,”
Pura said. “We’re right there helping the
team.”
These are just a fraction of the traditions that are carried out
in nearly every game at UCLA, and at some point during one’s
freshman year, most of them become quite natural to even the casual
Bruin fan.
With reports from Andrew Finley, Bruin Sports senior
staff.
