Ply, why was that? Disinterest in the sport? More attractive entertainment alternatives? Lack of school spirit? etc., etc.
Flagging student support has been discussed here for years. Hoping someone from your generation can provide some insight.
It was such a big part of the college experience for most back in the 70s. Essentially game day was a party day with football thrown in too!
Not ply so can't speak for him, but having worked with students from that same timeframe there had a decent amount of experience. The majority of their students are either from the Northeast or major metro areas. Neither of which are strong hubs of college football where people follow the sport.
Don't let the apathy of supporting our own programs fool you, plenty of the students there are huge pro sports fans. Ton of NHL, MLB, NFL fans there. Many of them were on the spirit squad at their own high schools but found that their was almost not encouraged to support the teams at the school, almost as if it was ingrained into the culture.
Unpopular opinion, but I still maintain leaving City Stadium killed the
big game atmosphere around the games we had. Robbins stadium, while nice, gives off the aura of a Richmond Flying Squirrels game while the rustic charm of city stadium gave the
crowds character. Someone tell me how often we have seen that atmosphere on campus?
The schools heart was in the right place, but moving on campus killed community support for the program and the students did not pick up the slack. Its mainly for alumni gatherings that are more likely to stand around the charcuterie table than in the stadium. Maybe some people enjoy that sterile atmosphere with a track, but give me those capacity crowd games at city stadium any day of the week over games where we couldn't even outdraw Varina and Highland Springs.
Lets be real too, there is a ton more to do both off campus and on than there was in the 1970s.
The golden era of student support at least in my life time was when
@Spiders05 was running the rowdies. The student support hasn't even come close to what it was when he ran it and when he left the drop-off was immediate. If we had just one student or frat that cared about it the way those guys did, I guarantee you the Robins Center/Stadium would be far more intimidating. He singlehandedly help build a student section for UR at the costco center back in the day.
P.S. Bring back the rowdy run.
