Rick’s Rowdies are no more. Go ahead and smirk, I know you want to.
For years the Rowdies had been the dominant presence in the Hump. Dressed in their Rick’s Rowdies’ shirts and sporting maroon wigs as hats, the Rowdies were famous for their ability to hurl witty insults at opposing teams. However, as is the way at many colleges in the South, the Rowdies were unfairly stigmatized due to their raucous support of a basketball team. (Cheering wildly for a college basketball team is considered socially unacceptable in a region where 90,000 people will show up to watch a football team take part in a glorified scrimmage. S-E-C, y’all.)
On Monday, Mississippi State Student Association President Rhett Hobart announced in his weekly SA President’s Update that, in order to increase student support of the men’s basketball program, the Rowdies would be disbanded and replaced with a group that will appeal to a larger swath of the MSU student body. (Read into that what you may.) Also, much like Simba and Nala, the student section will be reunited.
Although the Rowdies’ demise is sure to upset the group’s members, it was time for MSU to move in another direction in regards to its official student support group for the MSU basketball program. Due to the splitting of the student section, the declining membership in the Rowdies and the overall lack of enthusiasm emanating from the Hump during basketball games, something needed to be done to provide the Bulldogs with a better home court advantage.
For all of the good things the Rowdies did ‑show up early, dress up, coordinate cheers and et cetera. ‑it seemed as if there was a segment of the student body who would always fancy themselves to be too cool to take part in any such group. Some students would even go so far as to call the Rowdies “the militant wing of the Baptist Student Union.”
As a result of the venom often spewed in the direction of the Rowdies, it became “uncool” to be a Rowdy. This is where the new student group comes in. At a time when phrases such as “Grindin’ for my State” seem to be on the tip of every MSU student’s tongue, there is no reason MSU students can’t set aside their childish differences and form a student support group that gets, well, downright rowdy at basketball games.
I often hear students talk about the awesome atmosphere at famed basketball venues such as Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium or Kansas’ Allen Fieldhouse, but the same students are often too cool to get loud at a MSU basketball game.
For all their good intentions, the Rowdies weren’t nearly “edgy” enough for a college group with the sole purpose of igniting the crowd at the Hump. I’m not advocating students get wasted before basketball games, although that usually works, or scream obscenities at the opposing team in order to foster a more fun and intimidating atmosphere, but there is no reason “wittier” cheers can’t be developed. Facebook, Twitter and sports message boards are your friends, prospective members of the new student group. Use them to unearth humorous things about the basketball team’s opponents.
College students love to push the envelope, and as long as the new group is allowed to do so without crossing the line, it will be appealing to many students. When searching for an identity, MSU’s new group should strive to be more like Keith Richards than Taylor Swift.
If the basketball team is expected to have a particular swagger, then shouldn’t the students who cheer for them have some swagger as well?