“The comparison is night and day,” Yarabeck said. “When I first got here, you’d almost see as many other school shirts as you did Sam Houston shirts. To be honest, everything was kind of revolving around people going to class — which they need to do — but there wasn’t that sense of pride that there certainly is now. Now you go and it’s hard not to see people in orange shirts.
“The whole school coming together and generating spirit feeds on everything. It’s like momentum, when you start winning games; the players learn how to win. When you start having spirit, like when the Kat Krazies were created about five years ago, that puts it up a notch too. Guys painted out in orange banging on a metal sign … that kind of unnerves the opposition.
“All these things worked together and generated positive feeling for our sports teams and a real pride in SHSU. What’s not to be proud of? Look at how the student body has grown – the word is getting out. It all fits together for the betterment of our university.”
November 12th, 2012 at 12:15AM
The problem, of course, when enrollments grow in response to university sports teams’ victories, is you get students who are more interested in going to the game than going to class, or who mistakenly think that the reputation of the university (and hence the value of their diploma) really is tied to the team’s reputation. Though I’m told that sports talk can be useful in some job interviews (my brother got his first serious job in part thanks to his ability to chat about rowing with some higher-up or another), employers have a funny habit of actually expecting skills from college graduates.