It's good to see another Alabam fan from St. Louis on here. There are actually qiute a few here, a group has viewing parties but I haven't been real good about going out there.
I first heard the sidewalk fan thing from Barn fans during law school. My former room-mate, a Barn fan, tried to explain it to me in typical Barner fashion, a reasonable explanation with a dig at Alabama buried in there. His explanation was that since Alabama had had so much success in the past (like the Cowboys or Yankees), the school had a lot of fans who weren't alumni, he then went on to make typical derogatory comments about non-alumni fans, implying a superiority on the part of Auburn. I used to work for a CPA firm that did audits of a lot of lumber mills in south Alabama, so I asked him "so all those guys I used to see working in the saw mill with Auburn shirts and/or hats on were all graduates of AU? I guess their degrees weren't worth a whole lot, I guess it's a good thing you decided to attend Alabama so you can get a job.":biggrin2:
Stewart Mandel wrote a couple of times that people should support their undergraduate school over home town schools, etc. But I disagree with him on that. That may be true in some places, but it's true in Alabama, you're pretty much an Alabama fan or an Auburn fan from an early age. You usually have to pick in grade school, if you're parents haven't already indoctrinated you. Especially with the fans that grew up before UAB, UNA, USA, Jax State, etc. had programs (or if they had programs before people outside of students knew about such programs). I went to UAB undergrad, which did not have a football program at the time. Even if they had, I had grown up with Alabam football and I probably wouldn't have pulled for UAB over the Tide. I suppose Mandel would say that now I should pull for UAB over Alabama, but he's crazy on that point. Like others, I don't think attending the school is required to be a fan, we appreciate all fans. Heck, I have a post-graduate degree from Florida, and I only pull for the Gators against UT and UGA, I really hope they lose every other game.
I could see why people in Missouri would be confused though. Apparently high school is all they care about here, and I don't mean football. Most every other place I've lived (and there have been quite a few) when someone asks where you went to school, they mean college. Not here, they want to know where you went to high school. 95% of the people went to Catholic High Schools, and you have to apply to the different Catholic High Schools. Apparently, selection day in 8th grade is very important, and they don't really care about college. Most will go to Missouri, SLU or UMSL, unless you have enough money for Wash U. I was told that people use the high school thing to judge your social status, how much money your parents had, etc.
I've never been to a Mizzou game, I hear they are pretty fun and they have a good atmosphere. Even so, I just can't imagine it comparing to the atmosphere in Tuscaloosa.