SPORT
55
A Guide to University Sport Stereotypes Everyone has met someone who plays sport at university. Whether you’re waiting for the bus next to someone wearing a green jumper with their sport on the bicep, running into a team in the gym or your neighbour in freshers who went to a session and were completely hooked, you’ve come across one of them. Everyone also “knows” certain things about certain sports and teams. Some of these stereotypes are more idiosyncratic to Nottingham than others. There are sports with national stereotypes, like rugby and hockey having the reputation of being posher than your average. You have the “rugby lad” figure, with the attendant stories, everywhere you have rugby clubs. On the other hand, you see teams going to a particular place together on Wednesdays or recognise the distinctive appearance of University of Nottingham sport gear and the stereotypes that that leads to.
“Seemingly everyone who has ever stepped foot into a training session for any team has ended up with some kind of gear” The standout across all the different teams is the gear. Seemingly everyone who has ever stepped foot into a training session for any team has ended up with some kind of gear. It could be a fleece or jacket with the team name on, which results in all the looks to see what sport and whether the person “matches” it, or something more distinctive like a team hoodie. These then become what everyone rolls out of bed and puts on. You can tell when an order comes in as then you have a flood of brand new ones out and about on campus at the same time. Everyone then has their own theories about who wears this gear more than others, whether it’s about everyone from a given sport, or a subset of sports more broadly.
“You’ll also undoubtedly have seen some of them out seemingly every Wednesday or Friday night. The only way these two things can be true is that they’re working hard and playing harder” Foremost, among all the sporting stereotypes is the work hard, play hard mentality. The two places you are most likely to see someone who plays a sport are in and around DRSV or on a night out. If you then personally know one of these people you’ll have heard about the early runs or the evening training sessions or the extra hours they have to put in beyond even that. You’ll also undoubtedly have seen some of them out seemingly every Wednesday or Friday night. The only way these two things can be true is that they’re working hard and playing harder, with their degree potentially being put on the back burner. Everyone’s got their own views on different teams or university sport more generally. They can just be among your group of friends if you’ve seen a specific team out and about a few places, or it can be a general assumption about the whole enterprise. Some of these are pretty on the money, but others couldn’t be further from the truth.
Callum McPhail
Graphic & Page Design by Natasha Phang-Lee
