School spirit

(Top: Spirited “college coeds” during the 1890s. Bottom: My hall mates from freshman year, decked out—in O Zone t-shirts, no less—for the OU-Pitt football game. I’m wearing the baseball cap.)

It’s one thing to say you support Ohio University athletics and another thing entirely to stand on the sidelines bleeding green and white. Looking back, I can’t say I was a die-hard fan. But everyone has a different idea of school spirit and each has a unique way of expressing support. Our common thread is each other and our Ohio University.

“School spirit is an identity,” says O Zone President Tyler McManus. “It’s students who can identify with one another by supporting their school.”

The O Zone is a relatively new addition to OHIO school spirit since its inception eight years ago. The self-proclaimed “premiere student cheering section of the Mid-American Conference” certainly lives up to its claim. See for yourself as it performs the Winning Team/Losing Team chant, which allegedly originated in the sixties but was resurrected in recent years.

Clearly, school spirit is constantly evolving. McManus sees it in how the originality and creativity of students (i.e. crazy outfits) meshes with traditional cheers. “It’s definitely a welcoming of new things but maintaining a tradition,” he says. Also, as student populations have increased over the years, a growing gap has developed between student athletes and students.

“We really try to maintain that although they are athletes at our school, they are students and we are students, and we’re all on the same team,” says McManus. What a team that is. OHIO boasts more than 20,000 students these days, a far cry from the three students it opened for two centuries ago.

And the O Zone—the largest student group on campus—is in fact the largest is has ever been, says McManus. More than 350 members are encouraged to show support at all varsity athletic events, from baseball to golf.

Compared to students like Tyler McManus, I have so few memories of cheering on my school’s athletic teams. Still, I can’t help but feel the same when I hear him so assuredly say, “Yeah, I will be a loyal Bobcat until the day that I die.”

Photo credit - Top image: Courtesy of Richard H. Rudolph, ’43. Scanned from “Ohio University, 1804-2004: The Spirit of a Singular Place” by Betty Hollow.