Change happens slowly, but let me tell you, the alumni section is the loudest and most engaged I have ever seen it. Will they ever do everything the students and recent grads do? Not a chance. It’s just never going to be the same intensity as a section full of standing (and, um, drunk) students. But the culture is definitely changing and the Alumni section is stunningly more active than it ever was before. Which is good news!

And TwistNHook, you couldn’t be more right. Cal fans are real fans. If they weren’t, they’d be rooting for USC or something. You’ve got to be special to root for Cal. (Cal haters, feel free to interpret that last sentence Ralph Wiggum style if you like.)

Real fans root for Cal.

Period.

So I said I’d write up some analytical thoughts…but the Cal football blogosphere seems to already be a thousand steps ahead of me. It makes my job easier to focus on the mundane and the sublime, and turn over the analysis to them. Here are…

And from the near-top of the rim on the east side of the stadium, a quick glance at the alumni really doesn’t distinguish if the alumni are standing or sitting (usually I am counting our players on defense and keeping an eye on substitutions). I did not know that the alumni were standing more than they had ever stood in the past 30 years. In fact, I bet most of us younger fans didn’t know that either. I appreciate you sharing that information because any reports from the west side of the stadium will better complete my mental picture of the game day atmosphere.

Now regarding the topic of a true football fan, I never said that true football fans should do everything the Mic Men say, nor that all fans should stand (perhaps somebody else’s comments are being confused with mine?). Additionally, my statement did leave an exception for any fan that sits and makes noise while watching the game. Anyways, I do not wish to quarrel with you over minute details since I have high regards for you as a fellow Cal blogger and a “same-team” friend so I’ll move on to the main point I did not make very clear. In my opinion, I think real football fans should be loud (with the very obvious exception to those who may not have the physical ability or health to do so). You do bring up a good point that everyone brings their own expectations to the game, and I will concede that point in agreement. And actually, that thought did cross my mind as I wrote that sentence. Nevertheless, my thought process was something along the lines of: if you want to support your team, wouldn’t you be willing to do anything within your legal power to help your team? The most basic assistance a football fan can give his or her team, besides buying tickets, monetary gifts and mere presence during games, is crowd noise. How the noise is made, and in what bodily position that noise is made does not matter to me as long as the fan makes noise.

Nathan, my perceptions of the game’s crowd noise was best stated by your comment that “the noise at the Oregon game was more sustained.” I felt the same way. As for the actual loudness of the crowd, as I stated earlier, I was not in the position to judge since I like being up high in the bowl.

My friends and I figured this much: the noise at the Oregon game was more sustained, but the loudest points in this game was a lot louder than at any point in the Oregon game. After Desean’s runback and Worrell Williams’ fumble recovery, man, I was in row 54 of the student section and my ears and brain seriously hurt. It was beyond the threshold of sound and tone; more just like a TV on static at volume 40,000 invading my brain. Fantastic.

Were you at the same game I was? That was the loudest I have ever, ever heard the alumni section. We were actually standing for most of the game. That has NEVER happened in the 30 years (seriously, I’ve been coming since I was 6) I’ve been sitting in section FF.

“Real football fans don’t go to games to sit there quietly and watch the game. Real football fans go to games knowing they are going to lose their voice from screaming and yelling.”

Forgive me if I’m a little tired of being told who real football fans are, presumably from people who think that they’re real fans and lots of other people aren’t. We’re all different, have different expectations, and bring our own priorities to what we do. I have no problem exhorting Cal fans to be louder at the stadium, but to suggest that some Old Blue who sat through decades of inept teams out of love for Cal Football is not a “real football fan” because they don’t stand and scream and do everything the Mic Man tells them to do is ridiculous.

Go Bears!