Perhaps I didn't take the chance to be perfectly clear in my last article.
Far be it from me to soil an otherwise honest name. Let there be no mistake that those diehard fans—those wild Augieholics—who relentlessly toil along with Augustana's sports teams and school events generate the pulse to the lifeblood of this institution.
Whether or not any Augieholics had their hands in any alleged party-bus antics is not what's important here. What is important is the fact that they have been more effective at rallying students in Viking support than any other organization on campus.
The Augieholics are just as much a part of the sports scene as any quarterback or prize runner, and their ability to stir up enthusiasm in their peers speaks for itself.
They've seeped into the bloodstream of the school and raised the student body as a whole to a healthy buzz that lasts throughout the entire football season.
And soccer season.
And golf season.
And volleyball season.
And wrestling season.
And track season.
And baseball season.
And softball season.
And tennis season.
And any other season that requires gratuitous amounts of support.
However, I will bear no apologies in calling them all—at least in some sense—intoxicated.
For in their own words, "There's no cure, no 12-step plan here…this is for all the Augie-crazed fans to relish in the fact that we are addicts to Viking athletics."
Because you are one of them, and I am one of them, and as you walk in and out of the halls and through the commons and gymnasiums of this place, you realize that we are everywhere.
We've all heard that the first step to redemption is admitting that you're an addict. Well, my name is Rob Green, and I am an Augieholic.
I know I'm not alone, because I see Augieholics at every Augie event I've ever been to.
Tuesday they were out supporting the UBG tubing event at Great Bear. Thursday they were on a bus to the basketball games in Mankato. This weekend they'll be at the track for the NSIC Championships and get back in time to make the late show of The Fantasticks at the Edith Mortenson Center.
Whatever event they go to, they'll show up spewing Blue and Gold pride like it's Gospel, reminding us all that there is more hidden in this whole college thing than we thought—and that, my friends, is a thought we could all get used to.
Feel it, you Vikings, and embrace that sensation you get when you're deep inside that "come on come on come on come on come on" slow-motion moment when Luke Butler throws a long pass or Cameron McCaffery rolls the ball off his fingertips at the buzzer.
The athletes are important in those kinds of moments, but anybody can tell you it's the fans that bring them to life.
And to all those nervous parents out there who worry that the typical "college sports fanatic" is nothing but a drunken slug who wastes away his parents' retirement money: If the worst thing you have to worry about your kid getting drunk on here at Augustana is a heavy dose of school spirit, I'd call it a pretty good day.
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