The concept of "T-shirt Fan"

This is a little known fact; "t-shirts" are named after their inventor - it's a shortened form of the more traditional "thadeus shirts."

 

Just because you might have grown up liking a team doesn't mean you should attend that university when you come of age. I know I didn't. I went to my school for my major.

I refuse to wear team jerseys. I've never thought that it made sense to wear another man's name/number. People know damn well that I'm not Yao if I wear a #11 Rockets jersey.

 

I'm a loud and proud one. Grew up loving UT, planned on going to UT until March of my senior year when I visited SWT with my girlfriend at the time, just to go. Fell in love with the school immediately and the rest is history.

BTW, this t-shirt fan was enjoying the win over the #3 team in the nation from my seat (well, I was standing the entire time) in the Erwin Center.

 

I only hate that when it's people who follow sports. I really don't have a problem when a team rallies a city and receives the attention that doesn't come when their not winning. You've got people who don't watch baseball all of the sudden watching it because of all the attention. Take the Astros this season, for example. I don't really have a problem with that. I have a problem with those who follow sports and always root for the frontrunner, the it team of the week.

 

There's a difference between someone who pulls for a school that they didn't necessarily attend and someone who pulls for whichever school has a good year that particular year.

A bunch of people at work broke out their Longhorn shirts the Friday after the Rose Bowl. Clearly they hadn't given a frogs fat ass about UT until December 2005. Most of them were women.

Personally, I'm a casual Texas fan. I wanted to go there all through high school and I auditioned for a scholarship my senior year. I got a partial scholarship, but when I discovered the high cost of living in Austin, it was a no go. Especially since I was paying for everything myself. I chose the full scholarship to Sam Houston and the low cost of living in Hunstville and never looked back.

I've pulled for Texas since the early 80's. That said, I never say "we" when referring to Texas because I didn't go there.

BTW, I noticed that Sam Houston is playing UT in football next year. Yikes...

 

I think the whole concept of t-shirt fan is dumb. Who freakin cares? Oh yeah fans of inferior programs who are jealous and would give anything to have t-shirt fans of their own.

 

Applied to A&M, UT, and Trinity out of HS in '99, got in all 3 and chose to go to A&M (although I did take one ECON class at UT-Austin). I generally cheer for other Texas schools, including UT, unless it would directly hurt A&M.

Where the term "t-shirt" fan comes from, IMO, is someone who never stepped foot on campus and became a fan when they got good. A pro sports example would be the guy who went out and bought a Red Sox cap even though he doesn't know anything about the franchise and has never watched an entire Red Sox game.

I probably have a better view of the t-shirt fan than most, seeing as how A&M's football program has sucked the past 3-6 years. I have a collared A&M shirt that I wear, which seems to attract "t-shirt" fans who are not smart enough to get into either A&M or UT, but feel the need to inform me that the university I went to is not fielding a good football team. So what? Do you want me to congratulate you for choosing to cheer for UT because they are good?

The problem is that a lot of these idiots were A&M fans in the 80s and 90s, so it goes both ways. I think the key to the "t-shirt fan" is that they jumped on the bandwagon because a team/school is good and they are boastful like they have something to be proud of.

 

So, uh, is "T-shirt fan" really just another way of saying "bandwagon fan," or is there an actual difference?

 

t-shirt fan is indeed a bandwagon fan, but they are more than just a bandwagon fan.

Bandwagon fan will cheer at bars or at home and talk about the game w/ his friends and actually say he wanted so and so team to win. This often applies when a team in the area is having an excellent season, example, longhorns football this year. Then, after the season, he could care less about the school or team until next year. Then, if that team starts to lose, he/she doesn't follow as strongly or closely.

T-shirt fan is all of that and more. T-shirt fan never graduated from that university. Hell, tshirt fan doesn't even have to like college sports. It can even apply to pro too. He/she is just going for the flavor of the week and goes out and buys items promoting that team. So long as the team is winning, the tshirt fan will be supportive. You can identify the majority of them b/c they would be still wearing "their" team's stuff weeks after the last game, while the true fan can go back to normal. In the case of the longhorns, the alumni, employees, current students all have a right to cheer. They were A PART of the magical season that just happened. The tshirt fans say "WE" like they were a part of it, but the only thing they were a part of was cheering for the team that ended up winning.

You see manual labor workers, transplants from other states, people from other schools, etc, who directly have no affiliation to that school or team cheer for them for that season while the going is good.

Many of you tx state grads or current students know what I'm talking about. Either u r fighting the good fight and supporting your own team, or you've already crossed over and have no self dignity at all. Obviously everyone likes a winner. If you have kids, u want them to win at everything they do. Winning builds character and is addicting and it certainly feels better than losing. But I'd rather not sell my soul (in a manner of speaking) to something that is going well at that moment and waffle to the next team when previous team isn't going well. I stick w/ my teams all the way through. It's loyalty and pride and obviously many don't have it.

 

I'm a t-shirt fan. I love t-shirts.

 

What if you just like T-shirts? I wear different college or team T-shirts just because: I went to school there, I taught there, someone in my family went to school or taught there, or maybe I just visited and liked the atmosphere. And I do root for the teams at least somewhat, though I'm not as good about keeping up with it as some people.

-Isabel (currently in Michigan T-shirt and Tennessee sweatshirt, now that I think about it)

 

rocketteen, thanks for the explanation. because i'm tired of being called a tshirt fan, and apparantly that doesn't apply to me. i grew up in longhorn household, both parents went there and my father graduated from UT (mother went onto graduate from SWT). growing up i spent a lot of fall saturdays in the seats of DKR Memorial Stadium, and a lot of time at the erwin center watching longhorn hoops. it's in the blood. but i CHOSE to go to texas state and they are my team. texas is no longer my team, they are simply texas. i root for them, and root for them hard. but i identify with the bobcats and they are MY team and MY school. but that doesn't take away the fact that i still like texas and root for them.

 

I'm not a t-shirt fan. My father graduated from A&M and, without any influence from him, I became a fan of A&M. When I decided to major in music it was obvious that I wouldn't go to Aggieland. I started out at UH and when I fell in love with jazz I transferred to Texas State. I plan on going to UT for my Masters degree.

I never really cared much about UT. They have their share of @$$holes (I had UT fans throw ice at me when I was in the UH band) but all schools do. I rooted for them in the Rose Bowl, partly because I'll probably go there and partly because a friend of mine from California was talking alot of sh*t. But I'm not going to go out and buy/wear UT gear. I'm not a UT fan. That might change when I get there but right now my loyalties belong to Texas State. I still support the Coogs as well.

On the subject of pro sports: I'm a fan of all the Houston teams. My favorite NHL team is the Philadelphia Flyers. I never lived in Philly but did live about 2 1/2 hours away in Pottstown, PA for 9 months. I got interested in hockey soon after moving back to Texas. I adopted Philly as my team (the North Stars were still in Minnesota at the time).

 

Bandwagon fans are one thing...but the whole 'T-shirt fan' thing is silly. Who cares who people decide to root for?

 

The kind of T-Shirt fans that annoy me are the fans who follow a team just out of name alone and the fact that the media constantly shows them even when they are doing bad. I'm thinking of Notre Dame, Cowboys and Yankees. In most cases I've found fans of those teams just seem to latch on to them cause they are on TV a lot and really don't follow those sports much and just root for them or buy their gear almost out of default.

 

Yeah. Sometimes I try to talk sports with people wearing team apparel and they actually say they don't really watch or follow the team at all. Definately happens a lot with the Yankees.

 

i graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1994. i love t-shirts. consider me a fan of both.

 

T-Shirt fan is generally a crappy thing to be if you have no real motivation to root for a team. Cheering for a team artbitrarily comes off looking shallow and cheap, because more often than not, that T-shirt comes off once the winning stops and the good times end.

I think I'd draw the line somewhere around family connection. My roommate is a big Notre Dame fan. He never went to ND. But his brother played football for them, and his sister graduated from there. He spent tons of time as a kid on the ND campus and on football trips, so it is kind of engrained in his blood. I don't call him a t-shirt fan or a bandwagoner for that, because he has a real connection to the school/team and doesn't abandon them whenever they suck.

Now, the yutz who just randomly picks up a A&M/LSU/UT/OU hat at Walmart because that team is winning, and then has the nerve to talk trash to me about sports, well, he can go jump in a lake of fire.