Resist teaching new class cynicism

Fresh fish! Fresh fish!Like the inmates in my favorite movie,
“Shawshank Redemption,” we upperclassmen lick our lips
as we watch the new class entering our domain, their steps timid,
eyes full of fear and wonder.

Hmmm, that probably came out a little creepy. So let me clarify
exactly how we will prey on the freshmen.

First, there is one easy way to spot them.

It isn’t that they are holding their BruinCards in the air
and look more lost than the USA Basketball team against a zone.

You can tell by their conversations.

“Hey are you going to the game?”

“Hell yeah, who isn’t!”

Freshmen are pretty much the only ones on campus enthusiastic
about UCLA sports. At a university full of young, idealistic men
and women with dreams of changing the world, it is ironic that when
it comes to UCLA athletics there are more cynics than at a Ralph
Nader rally.

This cynicism is certainly not unwarranted. I have been a Bruin
fan at likely the three worst years for football and basketball in
the last half-century. We have merely been broken into the system,
and like a prisoner, no longer know any other world.

I remember my freshman year. Whenever I had told anyone I was
going to UCLA, they were effusive about how much fun I was going to
have at football and basketball games and about the intensity of
the rivalry with ‘SC.

Things certainly started off promisingly.

My first football game was one of the best athletic events
I’ve ever attended ““ Deshaun Foster went bonkers for
301 yards and we crushed a top-ten Washington team. The following
week, the whole campus was buzzing about Foster winning the Heisman
and what other schools we were competing against for the national
championship.

Then at my first basketball game, we beat then No.1 Kansas. As
we rushed the court, I thought to myself: Damn, this is what
college is all about!

But what a cruel joke.

I don’t want to rehash the freefall from there, but the
point is at least I have an idea what this school can be like with
everyone behind a winner.

The last two classes have endured football and basketball
seasons that were both excruciating and boring. Stands have been
half full and those attending games have often been met with
ridicule, having to answer the question ““ why waste your
time?

That is why it’s so refreshing to receive a boost of life
from the freshmen. They all bought athletic packages, because for
all they know that is what the rest of us do. They will excitedly
pack the UCLA buses as they chug their way to Pasadena and line up
hours early at Pauley for a December nonconference game.

By winter quarter, the cynicism from the three classes before
them will creep in and spoil their fun. They are the fat prisoner
from Andy’s first night at Shawshank. Little by little, we
will heckle them and break down their fragile psyche, leaving them
lifeless and despondent pessimists … but not beaten to death with
a stick ““ that’s a little too far.

It will no longer be “cool” to express excitement
about UCLA athletics.

They will observe us and learn to copy our reactions. Every win
will be met with a “well, it’s about time” and
losses will be met with disgust and “what else is
new.”

I wish things weren’t like this. We don’t like to be
cynics, but that is what the past few seasons of UCLA basketball
and football have bred in us.

So this is my plea to all us older Bruins to spare our young
brethren. Let’s forgo the pessimism and let them naively
enjoy their first experiences with their college’s major
sports.

For one, it may end up being the best experience they have.

For another, maybe we should give one more shot at belief.

As Shawshank showed, even the bleakest situations can ultimately
offer redemption.

E-mail Peters at [email protected]