Have you ever heard the phrase, “You can’t see the forest for the trees”? Well, they’re actually right. I learned more about ETSU during a four-hour escapade to Middle Tennessee State University than I have in almost two years on this very campus.
What was this lesson that I learned at MTSU? A lesson in school spirit. By whom you ask? Well I’ll tell you. A group of complete strangers who showed me more school spirit in one afternoon than I’ve ever seen on this campus.
I traveled to Murfreesboro to visit a friend about a week ago who transferred to MTSU, and to his delight he told me that it was homecoming weekend. After sleeping through ETSU’s Homecoming I wasn’t exactly amped to hear about his but I thought what the hell so I said, “Great.”
So began one of the best homecomings I’ve ever been apart of and yes I was apart of it by the time it was over.
It was just like homecoming here except for the school pride, activities, and uh.uh. oh yeah, football. You know football pads, cheerleaders and touchdowns or have we forgotten?
I know that football has long been gone but now we have a generation of students on this campus that can’t disassociate the concept of college and football.
Their entire educational careers education and football have been joined at the hip. Why should this end at the pinnacle of young people’s lives?
I, like many, realize that this is one of the most apathetic college campuses around but the school should at least consider giving these college students a chance to change the stigma that has been on this campus for decades.
If not for the blind, unadulterated devotion shown by my friends Justin Hill, Brent Woolsey, and the entire Blue Raider Homecoming Court, I would have never given this another thought, but keeping with the tradition of apathy at ETSU, I’ll just say I don’t care either way.

Author