Kentucky week ahead. They’re never going away.
Most University of Kentucky fans are okay. The ones in Louisville are the people with whom the observer has concerns. He has good friends locally who are UK fans — most of them kind, sharing and wonderful people — except when it comes to respecting the University of Louisville.
Many of them are descendants of times when UK was omnipotent even here, remnants from days when a lack of strong leadership in the city and at the unversity allowed that to happen. The citizenry sent their tax money to Frankfort, expecting little in return for the state’s largest city, passively allowing their university to take a back seat.
Things began to change in the late seventies and early eighties. Denny Crum was making his mark, challenging UK’s supremacy in basketball. Bill Olson was hiring Howard Schnellenberger as UofL football coach, demanding a game between the state’s top universities. The local leadership was investing in downtown, building the Galt House, the Riverfront Plaza/Belvedere, the Center for the Arts, things were starting to happen. Through the Louisville Development Committee, business leaders were extolling the city’s virtues in national publicity and advertising. Hazel Miller was singing “Look what we can do, Louisville,” promising a bright new future.
Downtown would continue to move forward, with unprecedented improvements, especially along Main Street, and would finally hit a home run with Fourth Street Live. Tom Jurich would arrive later, implementing a building spree on campus that would include a completed Cardinal Park, an expansion of Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium, and the construction of the KFC Yum! Center. He would also get the school into a new conference, UofL setting attendance records in every sport, its fans begetting an offspring generation of hard core UofL fans that will continue to grow.
Things have turned around in Louisville.
However, a segment of the local population remains rooted in the past, their lives continuing to revolve around a Lexington school, many of them believing nothing had changed. They’re not bad people, they just don’t share our views toward our home town, our university. The only negative is their unfettered loyalty often creates divisiveness in the community we share. And don’t forget they too pass their views along to their offspring, ensuring that the divide continues.
They badly want to believe the citizenry is split 50-50 between Cardinal and Wildcat fans. This despite surveys indicating that UofL fans significantly outnumber UK partisans in Louisville. Not that that’s unusual for a fan base because fans of athletic programs do tend to be irrational. Whether UK fans are more extreme than most can and will be debated ad infinitum.
For those interested in the facts, the observer provides a copy of the Courier-Journal study from 2005 that indicated Louisville fans outnumber Kentucky fans in Louisville 56.7% to 33.3%. UK fans tend to forget and often need to be reminded.
Here’s the link: fan poll
You do realize that these polls aren’t accurate and was taken in 2005. You get alot of response bias and and this is only for people who actually took the survey. I’m not saying UL doesn’t have more UK fans in the great city of Louisville, but these numbers are irrelevant.
Your logic doesn’t make a lot of sense Cards4life. The survey was pretty thoroughly thought out before it was implemented to avoid bias. And any survey results have to include the responses of the respondents. I think the results of the latest survey were similar to a survey taken by the CJ a while back with UofL again holding a big lead in fan support. Why would you even challenge something like that?
The article clearly says the survey was taken in 2005. You provide no information about why the survey isn’t accurate. Sorry, but you can’t go by your personal feelings on the issue. Surveying is the best way to see which way people are leaning, not by which color people are wearing or how how obnoxious one group of fans may be. Your conclusion that the numbers are irrelevant doesn’t hold water unless your point is that surveys in general are useless.
Flies at a summer picnic. Just flick them away. Lexington sure isn’t the best college sports town around. I wear my UofL shirt because I went there. My neighbor wears his UK shirt because Wal-Mart had it on a rack near checkout.
Great article. It is a concept most UK fans refuse to accept. I have degrees from both UofL and UK, however, my season tickets are for Louisville. The thing I find to be so funny is the majority of Jefferson County UK fans never attended any form of UK as a student.
If its blue, flush it down.
Glad you published the survey, Charlie. It really tells it all. Every Cardinal fan will now have the opportunity to stop all conversations about the incredibly fictitious 50-50 split. All Card fans ought to check out this fantastic survey — it brings to light many other erroneous argument points that our blue belly friends have alluded to.
Keep it filed away. It will prove to be useful over and over again.