Louisville Cardinals fans are people just like you and me. Most of them are good people. Nobody is saying they are horrible human beings. Living in Louisville means the majority of my friends are Louisville fans. I even have family (two sisters and some nieces) that are U of L fans. So many U of L fans are people that I care about. Them being a U of L fan doesn’t change how I care about them what so ever.
U of L fans love to bad mouth UK fans as being rude, arrogant and fair-weather. The first two may hold a little truth. A lot of UK fans are very nasty toward other fan bases, mainly that of U of L. When it comes to college basketball, UK is very arrogant and cocky. But saying UK are fair-weather fans is a myth and a lie. To find a fair-weather fan, U of L fans should take a look in the mirror. Nothing says fair-weather more than a U of L fan.
First let’s begin with U of L football. Under Bobby Petrino U of L Football was pretty damn good. They won a lot of games including the Orange Bowl and Big East Championship. Take away one bad quarter and U of L could have gone undefeated. Home games were sold out. During Football season you saw tons of U of L car flags, fans wearing their red in public and bars packed with U of L fans. Then Steve Kragthorpe took over as coach. Each season they won less and less. Papa John’s Stadium was normally one-third to half empty. All the talk of future National Championships ceased to exist. Hell, I almost forgot U of L had a football program, as did most U of L fans. Now since U of L is decent again, the football hype is back. The “fans” are now “fans” again. That’s the U of L way – win we’re a fan, lose we aren’t.
U of L basketball fans are no better. Growing up during the UK Pitino days all I heard was how he cheats, was a crybaby and snob. When Denny Crum started losing, how did U of L fans repay this legend? They ran him, his Value City suit and hairpiece out of Freedom Hall as quickly as they could. When U of L hired Pitino he went from cheat to the next great thing. He went from crybaby to gentleman. He went from snob to classy. That is how U of L fans treat their greatest Coach once he can’t win. They replace him with their archrival’s has been coach – priceless!
Lately U of L fans have picked up traits from known liar, Pitino. Pitino told the world how the KFC Yum! Center would be the greatest basketball arena of all-time (it is nice btw). For weeks before it was open U of L fans talked trash about their new great arena. They told us UK fans how it would make Rupp look like crap and how all the major recruits would flock to it. One would think with all the hype that a brand new state of art arena would have been sold out in hours, right? Wrong. The first game ever played in “the greatest basketball arena ever” didn’t even sellout until the day of the game. Actually it didn’t sellout until a few hours before game time. What a fan base!
Prior to basketball season there’s always hype for both UK and U of L. The difference is always the same – UK has a better fan base. Both teams start off the new season with “Basketball Madness”, a chance for fans to see the team, mainly the new freshman players. This year U of L fans talked more trash than normal, mainly due to their high preseason ranking (which they did deserve). Yet only 11,000 “hardcore” fans filled their 22,500 seat arena. UK on the other hand, had a sellout crowd at Rupp of 24,000 plus.
This past year Louisville fans have amazed me more than ever before. Now they pretend they know about women’s basketball and even a bigger joke, soccer. Soccer, really, you enjoy soccer? Most Americans hate soccer. UK’s soccer team could be ranked number one and I would care more about taking a nice dump. U of L got good in soccer and now I meet dedicated U of L soccer fans. Please, I doubt half of these idiots even know three rules of soccer. It’s funny how a few years ago I never heard or saw any U of L fan talking about soccer. Isn’t it amazing they do well; a few fans see it in the paper and jump on the bandwagon? They might as well, they do it for every other sport they play, why not soccer?
U of L fans can say what they want about UK fans. I rather be called those names than be fair-weather like your fan base. Even under drunk Billy Gillispie, senior day sold out and UK fans took over the SEC Tournament. Unlike U of L, our seniors didn’t play in a 50%-60% empty stadium. We UK fans also don’t pretend to know things about fake sports like soccer and cheerleading (which UK dominates btw). UK would have never ran Rupp out of Lexington and then replace him with a rival coach. Of course if UK did, the fans would have never accepted it like U of L fans accepted Pitino.
Listen, brag all you want about the KFC Yum! Center. It’s still smaller than Rupp arena. Add more seats to Papa John’s Stadium. It’s still over 15,000 seats smaller than Commonwealth. UK fans will always outnumber opposing fans during the SEC Tournament while it’s like looking for Waldo when trying to find U of L fans during the Big East Tournament. Little brother always wants what big brother has. U of L will never have a great fan base like that of UK’s.
