do you really believe?

Discussing inherited sports beliefs.

story by evan dahlke

When talking about sports, there comes a saying when someone says, “Is that really your favorite team?” Perhaps you were persuaded without you even knowing.

Where someone may have grown up in a household where a parent or grandparent had been an avid fan of the Kansas Jayhawks, to wonder does that necessarily mean that that a person growing up will have an altered opinion and or view on the Missouri Mizzou Tigers? They may be influenced to dislike the Mizzou Tigers only because they grew up in a household where they were influenced to believe that.

For people who have lived in a household where their parents have been fans. Two prime examples, fans who grew up in different households, different atmospheres, share what it means to be a fan.

“Yeah I’ve disliked the Jayhawks most of my life…”

Lauren Giuliani states. When asked if she would ever like the Jayhawks her answer was, “probably no”.

Lauren Giuliani who has been a Mizzou fan her whole life said. Where Mizzou fans come Jayhawk fans, when asked about his family “...but like for the Boston Celtics, my dad was always a fan of them, and I grew to become a fan of them too, just from watching the videos and plays and stuff that he recommended me to watch.” His thoughts on being a Jayhawks fan started mostly because he lives in Kansas and not Missouri, that was a key factor.

“I kind of like the Jayhawks overall most because I live in Kansas.”

When asked if he would still root for a team like K-State, “should I say no? They’re KU’s rivals so I wouldn’t root for them.”

In sports or even broader topics there comes when there is a middle ground between two sides. Lucy Hillestad, who has more of a neutral view on the matter,

“I’m kind of neutral, i’m not really like either team over the other…” She said, some people may have grown up in a household with no sports outlook, so naturally, no real opinion on a sports team can be developed. Moreover this adds to the concept of growing up in a household with parents believing one thing can lead to not having a broad outlook later because of subconscious bias. Bias towards a specfic team.