Re: best college basketball stadiums
Quote:
Originally Posted by
cyclonenum1 
This is absolutely dead on correct.
Hilton in the 70s was a morgue.
Hilton in the 80s was an event. It was THE PLACE to be. You got there early to soak it up. For certain you wanted to be there when Johnny made his entrance with fists-a-pumping. You came knowing that you were going to impact the game. It didn't matter who you were playing. You knew your role was to lift the Cyclones to perform to their highest possible level and to totally disconcert the other team's coach and players. Add in a little referee intimidation and you had a powerful impact...an impact that was later named "Hilton Magic". You stayed at halftime to greet Ed Gagnier with a rousing "Hi Ed!" and see if someone could shoot 5 for 5 to win a new car "From Benson Motors!". After the win, many of us (usually in the thousands) stayed to greet Johnny when he came back out from the locker room to do the post game show with Pete and Eric. It was special!
In the 90s winning became somewhat "old hat". Early in the decade we lost the master showman Johnny Orr and his replacements just did not fire people up in the same way. The style of play was less exciting and although there was some great success on the court it happened without much impact from the Hilton faithful.
In this decade, success on the court has waned and it appears that Hilton Magic has become a cliche'. People come late and leave early. They sit on their hands waiting for the team to do something worthy of cheering.
When I hear about most social events at ISU the 1980s were THE years. I heard VEISHA was way better, I heard it was more social, etc.
It just sounds like ISU was a more social place in the 1980s. You could also drink when you're 18.. I'd guess some students would kick a few brews back prior to the game starting, which would add to the atmosphere.
I can't speak for the 70s, 80s, or 90s, but in today's world, the ISU fan expects greatness. On Saturday for that Brackins alleyoop, the row of fans in front of me didn't even clap.
I've talked to students and mentioned how I had season tickets and they'd respond "I'm sorry".... I'm guessing those types of convos didn't really happen in the 80s.
By all accounts, ISU was a more fun place to be in the 1980s - at least that's what I keep hearing...
Re: best college basketball stadiums
Quote:
Originally Posted by
mplscyclone When I hear about most social events at ISU the 1980s were THE years. I heard VEISHA was way better, I heard it was more social, etc.
It just sounds like ISU was a more social place in the 1980s. You could also drink when you're 18.. I'd guess some students would kick a few brews back prior to the game starting, which would add to the atmosphere.
I can't speak for the 70s, 80s, or 90s, but in today's world, the ISU fan expects greatness. On Saturday for that Brackins alleyoop, the row of fans in front of me didn't even clap.
I've talked to students and mentioned how I had season tickets and they'd respond "I'm sorry".... I'm guessing those types of convos didn't really happen in the 80s.
By all accounts, ISU was a more fun place to be in the 1980s - at least that's what I keep hearing...
Just to clarify. I started at ISU in 83 and the legal drinking age was 19. Somewhere during my 4.5 years the age went to 21 (with all those already "legal" being grandfathered in).
I did my fair share of partying and drinking but I never did much drinking prior to games at Hilton. I did my drinking after the game and certainly drank while watching the away games I did not attend (typically at Welch Ave. Station).
VEISHEA was great in the 80s...it was later in the spring so the weather was decent and there were certainly some great parties during that time of the year. But it was not about the drinking for most ISU students...it was about the parade and a celebration of ISU. I graduated in the fall of 87 and the spring 88 VEISHEA was when things started going south. It was the first riot...I came back and was shocked but the riot was started by a bunch of non-ISU people that were just in town to booze it up and raise hell.
I cannot imagine people at Hilton not even clapping for an alley-oop. I'm not sure I understand what your season ticket/I'm sorry story is all about. ISU in the 80s was fun but it was not just about the drinking.
Re: best college basketball stadiums
1. Hilton
That is all you need.
Re: best college basketball stadiums
Quote:
Originally Posted by
cyclonenum1 Just to clarify. I started at ISU in 83 and the legal drinking age was 19. Somewhere during my 4.5 years the age went to 21 (with all those already "legal" being grandfathered in).
I did my fair share of partying and drinking but I never did much drinking prior to games at Hilton. I did my drinking after the game and certainly drank while watching the away games I did not attend (typically at Welch Ave. Station).
VEISHEA was great in the 80s...it was later in the spring so the weather was decent and there were certainly some great parties during that time of the year. But it was not about the drinking for most ISU students...it was about the parade and a celebration of ISU. I graduated in the fall of 87 and the spring 88 VEISHEA was when things started going south. It was the first riot...I came back and was shocked but the riot was started by a bunch of non-ISU people that were just in town to booze it up and raise hell.
I cannot imagine people at Hilton not even clapping for an alley-oop. I'm not sure I understand what your season ticket/I'm sorry story is all about. ISU in the 80s was fun but it was not just about the drinking.
The "I'm sorry" story is just about a casual ISU fan: He's feeling sorry for me that I have season tickets because "we suck so much". Basically if you talked to a lot of students, they don't really think Hilton is the place to be. The only student support we get is Cyclone Alley, which is great, but it'd be nice to fill the top part of students as well.....
Not to turn this into bashing students (I was a student a year ago), but I feel like back in the day, students had more ISU pride and turned out for the school. Now a days its not like that at all: I know a ton of alums that have NEVER been to the VEISHA parade, amongst other ISU traditions.
People in Ames just aren't excited about Hilton as much as before. Now, they don't want to go to the games unless we're good: it isn't about the atmosphere, or college basketball (I believe college basketball as a whole is on the decline anyways), Hilton Magic, or anything like that. It's all about Ws and Ls to them. Fans think they are entitled to wins. People want to watch a winner and don't really have the sense of traditions as much as before - at least at ISU.... The only reason why football is so popular at ISU is the tailgating. If there was not tailgating at ISU, there'd be significantly less fans.
If you talk to people that don't really go to the games but like basketball, they say they don't go because we aren't good... To me, I love college basketball and would go regardless of our record. I pay only $5 a game - that's cheaper than a movie!
Re: best college basketball stadiums
About the alleyoop- I was going to write a story about this on one of the blogs, but there are a row of people that sit in front of me: they pay attention to the game, and don't really talk to each other. They didn't clap ONCE! Not during the fight song, not when the team came out, not ONCE!
I didn't really notice them, but my friend sitting on my right said " I can't imagine going to a college basketball and not clapping once". A couple minutes later my wife said something similar to me. All of us decided to make up for them and cheer especially loud after big plays.
Once the alley-oop happened, and all of us got up and were all crazy, they just remained seated and didn't even clap.
Let me be clear here too: I sit in section 202, a $99 section. These weren't corporate types or people shooting the breeze. These were middle aged people dressed in ISU gear watching a game and basically having so sign of life....
Re: best college basketball stadiums
I'd say the early 90s were exciting at Hilton as well. I think changing to the Big 12 had some impact too. ISU owned Kansas City that week and wered loved by Kansas City businesses and the CVB. You got to see all the coaches and each team every year on the home court. I remember a lot of games I bought tickets the first day available for Kansas, Iowa, Mizzou games and being in the top rows of seats. I also remember having to buy scalped tickets in the lot to get to games I wanted to see. Games would sellout before the season started.
As ISU's other sports increase in popularity and success, volleyball, womens' basketball, wrestling, etc. I think there is more demand for fan dollars. Men's BBall and wrestling were about it back then, so it was the sport to support. I still think ISU fanbase is more about basketball than football, and if the team starts winning, we will see a lot of fan support come back.
VEISHIA, sp?, was overrated. The only thing I remember enjoying was getting days off from classes, which they cut after the second/third riot along with moving the dates. I remember us dreading all the highschool kids coming from all over Iowa, MN, and NE to party along with UNI, EIU, Drake kids as well. Good time to get out of town. I also remember a couple of my friends in Frats and Sororities dreading having to build another float and all the distractions from class and studio work it brought.
