I hope you take the time to read this and I also hope that you realize that there are many of us who still love this football program and are not going to give up on our Bulldogs.
These are hard times but these are not the first hard times through which we have been. I happen to be a member of the graduating class of 1969 and was Bully during the 1968 football season, which was the last time we started 0-4. We did not win a single game in 1968 but we tied two.
I remember those games as if they were yesterday. Texas Tech was No. 7 in the nation when we tied them. Archie Manning was a junior when we tied the University of Mississippi in Oxford. We held our heads high. Yes, it hurt, but we were proud of our team and proud of our university. Our classmates and the student body stuck with the Dogs and we deafened many a crowd with our cowbells.
The Class of 1969 started our freshman year 4-0 and we were ranked No. 7 in the nation so we knew the thrill of victory. “Catch us if you can” was a hit song that year and it was the theme of Homecoming. We knew what it was like to support a winning program.
I became a cheerleader in the spring of 1966 and walked the sidelines for three years-one as Bully. During the three years that I cheered, we only won three games, but I was there for every one of those games save one.
You know, you have to put iron in the fire and beat it until it hardens. Maybe that’s what happens to true Bulldog fans. We have withstood the test of fire and we have been beaten but we are harder and stronger than fair weather fans.
It’s easy to be a fan for a winning team. It’s easy to come out and support a team that wins week in and week out. So what? Those fans who only come out when the sun is shining and when it’s fun are not the type of fans that I want next to me when the going gets tough.
A true fan will be there, through thick and thin, through sunshine and rain, and be there when you need them most. We need more true fans at MSU.
Jimmy Pepper is an MSU alumnus from Huntsville, Ala.