Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Sept 7, 2017 8:56:31 GMT -5
A wave of red swept Fresno last weekend.
College football season has arrived, and fans donned in the color of their Fresno State Bulldogs ventured into triple digit heat to see the opening game.
In all, more than 39,000 people filled the stadium to near capacity — no small feat in a city of just 520,000 people.
Fresno has been described as the state’s truest college football town, a place more akin to College Station, Tex., than Los Angeles or San Francisco.
“It’s like a sleeping giant nobody knows really about it,” said Brian Panish, who played as a safety for the Bulldogs in the late 1970s. “And it’s the only thing in town. There’s no professional sports.”
[Emphasis added]
The California State University, Fresno campus is situated more than 150 miles from both of California’s main professional sports hubs, Los Angeles and the Bay Area.
As a result, residents tend to adhere to a patchwork of allegiances to the Raiders, Giants, Dodgers and other teams.
“But those are all kind of secondary,” said Paul Loeffler, a sports broadcaster in Fresno.
The Bulldogs, he said, “really are the focal point not just for the Fresno community, but this whole San Joaquin Valley region.”
(If you map fandom based on Facebook “likes,” Fresno State dwarfs other California schools including U.C. Berkeley, Stanford and San Diego State — though not U.S.C.)
Supporters have had plenty to cheer about in the past as the relatively small program in the Mountain West Conference managed to attract outsize talent.
According to the Bakersfield Californian, Fresno State was the nation’s only college this year with former players chosen as all-stars in three major professional sports: Derek Carr in the N.F.L., Paul George in the N.B.A., and Aaron Judge in Major League Baseball.
Lately, however, the Bulldogs football squad has been slumping. Last year, it won just one game, prompting the coach to be fired and the attendance at home games to thin out.
Even so, it’s a new season, and excitement was in no short supply at the opener last Saturday.
Fresno’s biggest star, Mr. Carr, now an Oakland Raider, was on hand to see his No. 4 jersey retired in a halftime ceremony.
Regarded as one of Fresno State’s greatest quarterbacks, he gave a short speech about having dreamed of the moment as a boy. The crowd broke into thunderous applause.
Then the Bulldogs finished up a whopping victory over Incarnate Word, a Catholic university from Texas.
College football season has arrived, and fans donned in the color of their Fresno State Bulldogs ventured into triple digit heat to see the opening game.
In all, more than 39,000 people filled the stadium to near capacity — no small feat in a city of just 520,000 people.
Fresno has been described as the state’s truest college football town, a place more akin to College Station, Tex., than Los Angeles or San Francisco.
“It’s like a sleeping giant nobody knows really about it,” said Brian Panish, who played as a safety for the Bulldogs in the late 1970s. “And it’s the only thing in town. There’s no professional sports.”
[Emphasis added]
The California State University, Fresno campus is situated more than 150 miles from both of California’s main professional sports hubs, Los Angeles and the Bay Area.
As a result, residents tend to adhere to a patchwork of allegiances to the Raiders, Giants, Dodgers and other teams.
“But those are all kind of secondary,” said Paul Loeffler, a sports broadcaster in Fresno.
The Bulldogs, he said, “really are the focal point not just for the Fresno community, but this whole San Joaquin Valley region.”
(If you map fandom based on Facebook “likes,” Fresno State dwarfs other California schools including U.C. Berkeley, Stanford and San Diego State — though not U.S.C.)
Supporters have had plenty to cheer about in the past as the relatively small program in the Mountain West Conference managed to attract outsize talent.
According to the Bakersfield Californian, Fresno State was the nation’s only college this year with former players chosen as all-stars in three major professional sports: Derek Carr in the N.F.L., Paul George in the N.B.A., and Aaron Judge in Major League Baseball.
Lately, however, the Bulldogs football squad has been slumping. Last year, it won just one game, prompting the coach to be fired and the attendance at home games to thin out.
Even so, it’s a new season, and excitement was in no short supply at the opener last Saturday.
Fresno’s biggest star, Mr. Carr, now an Oakland Raider, was on hand to see his No. 4 jersey retired in a halftime ceremony.
Regarded as one of Fresno State’s greatest quarterbacks, he gave a short speech about having dreamed of the moment as a boy. The crowd broke into thunderous applause.
Then the Bulldogs finished up a whopping victory over Incarnate Word, a Catholic university from Texas.
Now if HC can get rid of the Pats, the Celtics, and the Bruins, we're all set.
