NUMB Theory of Negativity
By Lake The Posts on
It doesn’t take an Einstein to know it helps to manage expecatations as a sports fan. Especially an NU sports fan. New contributor Tim Peterson takes it to a new level…
Several weeks ago I put out a call for help. Several have responded. Today, we introduce the second of three contributors who have jumped on board to help bring more content to the growing constituency of LTP. Tim Peterson, a NUMB-bred Wildcat is our latest contributor and offers this take on how defensive pessimism is a way of life. And that’s OK. Tim – welcome aboard!
I recently finished reading David Rakoff’s “Half Empty”. I’ll spare you the book report,though, to be fair it is worth a quick read. He starts his collection of glass-definitely-not-half-full vignettes with a reference to another book, psychologist Julie Norem’s “The Positive Power of Negative Thinking”. Reading this got me thinking about what’s it’slike being a fan of NU sports, specifically our football and basketball teams. “Defensive pessimism” is a term of hers he jumps off with:
“Defensive pessimism is about sweating the small stuff, being prepared for contingencies like some neurotic Boy Scout, and in so doing, not letting oneself be crippled by fear. Where a strategic optimist might approach a gathering rainstorm with a smile as his umbrella, the defensive pessimist, all too acquainted with this world of pitfall and precipitation, is far more likely to use, well, an umbrella. This mental preparation is just an alternate means of coping with a world where – in the pessimist’s view of reality – there is often little difference between ‘worst possible outcome’ and ‘outcome.’ A world seen as worse than it actually is. Through such eyes, the optimist looks hopelessly naïve.”
No spoiler alert here: Rakoff goes on in his introduction to further explain Norem’s conclusions that people who fit this category are not necessarily worse off than their habitual opposites, just different in the way they approach life. Ultimately, a balanced pessimist just as strong a person as a balanced optimist.
I’m not trying to make the quick connection that all (or even most) NU fans fall intothis “defensive pessimist” camp and I’m certainly not wasting this space for a vanilla generalization that it doesn’t matter what kind of Wildcat fan you are, as long as you’re still a fan. Rather, I just think it’s an interesting perspective given the history of NU athletics, its support organizations (namely, NUMB) and the way the fan base has developed and responded to sports teams that have largely given them little to cheer about. Is there a better way to take NU’s lumps but keep coming back for more?
Being the offspring of two NUMB alums who attended NU during the mid-late ’70s, I was raised and prepared for attending NU myself with a disclaimer for Wildcat football: I shouldn’t be too sad or surprised when they lose. My parents came from the unique school of “cheering” where a draught of positive on-field performance helped develop a culture within the organization for being supportive of the team while never expecting too much from them either. During these “Dark Ages”, the band entertained itself through its own music, spirited hi-jinks and cheers that were both wacky and creative: “2, 4, 6, 8, time to differentiate… (it continues for some time)”; “Advance, advance! Ambulate over the turf! Ah!”; or the ever more timely gem: “Northwestern them, Northwestern them, make them pay heavily, every quarter!”
NUMB members from previous generations describe cheering as part of controlling theirown aspect of the game day experience and most reflect on winless seasons with positive nostalgia. NUMB made its own fun. Northwestern is a school full of overachievers and for at least the sports fans in NUMB, the football team may have been one of the first times something they really cared about didn’t meet the high standards they held for everything else in their lives. How do you reconcile that? Build a pessimism coping mechanism characterized by lots of quirky traditions and an undying love for gridiron warriors that is dependent in no way upon their performance, but just the fact that they are ours. The band has always been shit-weather fans, by design, principle and execution.
“Dark Ages” NUMBers expected our team to do anything but win. They knew no otherreality. It’s just how it was. But they stayed positive regardless. I was blessed to witness a victory as my first NU game in person: the blocked kick to end the 1997 MSU game.
It was the first time my folks had been back to a game since graduating, and to see them with their old classmates was a bit surprising: they were rejoicing, obviously, but also dumbfounded. When losing is your norm, not just a trend but way of being, the taste of success can be unrecognizable.
We have had tastes of success, more and more since the mid-90s. And yet, as fans with these negative streaks hard-wired into our deepest purple being, it’s difficult to watch an entire game unfold without at least half the time expecting, almost willing, bad things to happen. Maybe that’s part of this perception, this “hump” that our football and basketball programs are still getting over, for us. I distinctly remember watching games with my parents, who would see an interception, fumble, or effortless enemy touchdown and simply sigh, “well, it’s Northwestern.” By now, they’ve accepted pessimism as part of a balanced support ideology: we love our team, but that doesn’t mean we expect them to win.
Obviously many who read and comment on this blog are a bit more emotionally dynamic when it comes to our teams of late. I raise my paw and growl with you. There is plenty to growl proudly about. Obviously this forum’s existence, readership, interactivity and acclaim within the sports media community are testaments to the fact that the football program is indeed much different than the generations of negativity that inspired institutionalized pessimism, however defensive or balanced, throughout the Wildcat nation.
If anything, reading these posts for the past few years and seeing the improvements to Fitz’s program within his “era” might give one reason to be overly optimistic when it comes to being a fan. (Though as is often seen in the comments section, that doesn’t seem to be quite an epidemic just yet.)
Rakoff’s line about the “Boy Scout” makes me think of the NU fan as truly ready for anything, for any kind of painful loss. We’ve seen it all before. Some may harbor more negativity or polarized emotions than others, but there’s an inherent integrity there as a result – not a pity factor, but a storm-weathered toughness – within NU fans on the whole that is plenty to feel positive about.
2012 Recruiting
Hats off to Louie Vaccher of WildcatReport.com for an extensive look at 2012 recruiting by Northwestern in yesterday’s Rivals article. He reports today we have our sights set on Lima OH QB Tyler O’Connor. Enter the perception. O’Connor’s best offer to date is NU by far, but now the likes of Tennessee, Michigan, Virginia and Clemson are knocking. This is the time of year we we go up against the true big boys and as I’ve always liked, really market ourselves. I’m a true believer that having our name as a finalist for top tier players is good marketing, even if they don’t always choose us. When one of the top players in NJ, like current LB Jazzmar Clax (how bout that awesome name?) announces his “eight favorites” and Northwestern is among the finalists of Miami, Georgia, BC, Stanford among others it is good. We need to win some of these battles indeed, but this is the time when we are right in the thick of it. Local Montini Catholic (Lombard, IL) WR Jordan Westerkemp is one of those types and he really developed a bond with Kevin Johns and while he likes NU is also considering Indiana among a list of offers that is top shelf. It goes to show what early relationship building can do. This strategy worked with Zack Oliver who committed to NU before LSU even offered, although it appeared they were getting close. The “we were there first” approach meshes with some of the types of gets we land. Hopefully it will pay off with Tyler O’Connor.
And then there are stories like Barrington, IL OL Dan Voltz who is becoming one of the “hottest recruits in the Midwest” according to Rivals. Voltz grew up a Northwestern fan and is strongly considering NU among a list of offers that includes most of the Big Ten (including Ohio State ) as well as many elite program like Alabama, Oregon and a who’s who of the Top 25 . Everyone is after the kid. The concept that a kid grew up as a diehard NU fan is foreign to any of us over the age of 35. It goes to show how quickly you can turn perception around with the actual players. The fans? A different story. Keep heading over to WildcatReport.com for the fun time of the year when our name is in the mix with seemingly the best of those who actually are academically qualified.
Nice post. What I tell most people first about NU sports is that (at least in recent years) we are more blessed than anything else. We get to experience high level college sports, but because of our history we program ourselves to be naturally pessimistic, and therefore when we do pull off an upset it makes it an incredibly satisfying experience. I was a junior when we beat OSU in 2004, and it was one of the best experiences of my college career. On the other side of the table, for example if you’re an Ohio State fan, you expect to win always and if you don’t (particularly in this case) it’s especially brutal. So in this sense, our “defensive pessimism” enhances our fan experience. It makes the losses a little easier to take, and the victories that much sweeter. That being said, a bowl game victory or a shot at the big dance sure wouldn’t hurt…
Dan Voltz highlights (he’s a beast):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHxud3LQp2A
Interesting that we’re in on the Lima, OH QB. One our all-time greats, Tommy Myers from the Parseghian era, is from just down the road… Troy H.S.
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We need everyone to vote for the 1995 Wildcats in ESPN 1000′s “Chicago Mania”!
See the link below!
http://espn.go.com/chicago/specialFeature?page=sportsmadness
GO CATS!
As a freshman 1989 NUMB member, I heard rumors of the great traditions that NUMB had after winning a game. I never experienced them (0 for the season). I had season tickets to the only season tha a Big 10 team lost every Big 10 game. For some, our negativity has been well earned!
Thankfully the kids we’re recruiting now weren’t alive back then…
Dan Voltz is a must-have. He’ll probably be a 4-star, top-150-type prospect and we’re right there at or near the top of his list.
I watched our first commit Malin Jones’ highlight reels last night. He’s committed as a running back, but he looks like he could be a great defensive back to me . . . definitely not afraid of contact. And he’s a 6’2″ junior . . .
Since everyone seems to be sharing their tales of woe, I’ll share mine.
I arrived on the NU campus in September of 1981. We had already lost games to Indiana (by 1 point – missed 2-point conversion @ the end) and Arkansas. We were actually favored to beat Utah by 3 even though we’d lost by that time almost 25 straight games, mostly in the Rick Venturi era. So on a rainy dreary Saturday, I walked with a friend up to Dyche Stadium, and we proceeded to get completely drenched in watching the ‘Cats get clubbed by the Utes, 42-0.
We also went on to lose games that year to Ohio St. (70-6 – no that is not a typo), Iowa (64-0), Wisconsin (52-0), Michigan (38-0), Purdue (35-0), Illinois (49-12), Arkansas (38-7), and we broke the NCAA losing streak vs Michigan St. at home (61-14). Thankfully, I spent that Saturday afternoon at the Morton Arboretum with my parents instead of watching the ‘Cats parade to historic futility vs the Spartans. In addition to the close call vs Indiana, we also lost 35-23 to Minnesota in a game we trailed 35-9 in the 4th quarter before scoring a couple of late touchdowns. All in all, it was quite a freshman year, and quite an indoctrination into Wildcat football.
Of course, things could only get better from there, and they did. But I did not have to look those 1981 scores up, not one, because they are stamped on my memory. Being that bad – and we had Ricky Edwards, Chris Hinton and Steve Tasker! – made an indelible impression on my mind. It left a mark. However, now approaching 50, I’m as rabid a Wildcat supporter as exists, for many of the reasons you’ve all expressed.
Go ‘Cats!!
I came to NU in ’93, which I often felt was just about perfect, because I got to see both the good and the bad as a student (and in the right order). While we certainly weren’t dark ages bad those first two years, we also weren’t very good. I remember being in the stands (still Dyche) rooting for the other team to score just so that they could kick the ball off to Lee Gissendaner, who was a heckuva return guy (pretty sure he also played WR). My junior year was the storied ’95 Rose Bowl season, and we proved that it wasn’t a fluke by winning the conference again the very next year (though we shared the title with OSU, and because we had been to the Rose Bowl more recently — remember that tiebreaker? — the Buckeyes got to go to Pasadena, and we lost to Peyton Manning’s Volunteers in the Citrus Bowl).
Great post Tim! Way to put these confusing emotions we’ve been wrestling with the last few seasons into eloquent verbiage. You may very well have befuddled the antagonists with prodigious units of disclosure.
@juneau
I agree that Tim does have eloquent prose, and I wholeheartedly agree with his assessment, but I wish to enquire: with what does one measure disclosure? What is a “disclosure unit” and how does one integrate many of them?
I have tremendous empathy for folks who live through the Dark Ages. But it is time to move on and give our guys a true home field advantage. I moved to Chicago from the East Coast in 1989 and discovered the Cats in 1993. I have been a season ticket holder since and only missed one (1) home game the first 10 years. To me we are not losers. To the recruits we are not losers. But we do play NO home games. I really appreciate the mission of this blog – to fill the joint! So have drink in the parking lot before the game and reminisce about the Dark Ages – then get in there dragging friends along and get on your feet and pull for the CATS!
(And when it’s 3rd down I do not want ever hear again those dreaded NU words: “Down in front.”).
@NU manager…..
I believe Lee Gissendaner was from Troy Oh also…
just fyi
On the subject of Dan Voltz:
I’m a student at Barrington High School and thus, I see many (if not all) BHS football games. Dan was the leading force on our O-line this year…that said after two seniors on the line are going on to the likes of the AFA and W. Michigan next year. Additionally, with a D-line that was conspicuously over-matched size wise, Dan was sporadically thrown in to help out on defense. Overall, everyone is spot on; he’s a great football talent whose stock is growing for a reason. I, like many others, sincerely hope that Dan picks NU. Go ‘Cats!
Great comments – BHS – let Dan know we are all rooting hard for him to make NU his home! 2012 is going to be the start of the next level for us.
I live in Barrington and am a 93 grad of NU. I’ve had season tickets every year I’ve lived in the Chicago area (current streak since 97). BHS, if there are any questions or thoughts or any other things we can do to help Voltz learn more about NU, let me know, I’d be happy to help.
Wildcat 6, I was a freshman in 1981 too, and I also vividly remember that horrendous season. The difference: I was in NUMB, so I was at the Indiana game (I often wonder whether Dennis Green regretted not going for the tie). We travelled by bus to Arkansas. We had to sit in the rain for the entire, depressing Utah game. And what made it even worse, we had the gracious tradition then of playing the other team’s fight song every time they scored (if their band was not present). So we had to play the long and unpleasant Utah fight song over, and over, and over, and over!
I live on the East Coast, so I don’t get to many games. But I have been back to several homecoming games as a NUMBalum, and it’s so refreshing. While Jimgocats93 might not see it, believe me, it is much more fun to watch the ‘Cats now! Now there is a sense that somehow, we might actually win!
(Oh, and by the way, everytime my wife has been at the game, the Wildcats win.)