Ramblings: On the Season That Made Me A True Fan

Consider this the inaugural post for Zoulogy, a blog dedicated to covering, defending, and obsessing over Missouri Tiger Athletics. My name is Matt Suppes, and the following is a look back on the day I became a true fan of the Missouri Tigers.

Setting: the Suppes residence, basement. Date: March 26, 2009. It’s nighttime in Missouri on an otherwise normal Thursday, and a good portion of the community is watching the Tigers of Columbia duel with the Tigers of Memphis…

My mother was screaming louder than I had ever heard her scream before, even louder than the countless times she had screamed at me or my brother for not doing our chores or tracking mud in the house.

My brother kept shouting “Oh my God!” at the top of his lungs, his voice becoming more and more strained each time he blurted out the phrase. At a certain point, the words became too garbled for anyone to understand.

Me? I started jumping up and down with my hands raised in the air, but no words came out of my mouth for around thirty seconds. I simply could not believe what my eyes had just seen. After spending the last 16 years halfheartedly rooting for a lot of disappointing sports teams, I wasn’t exactly used to seeing the one I was rooting for put on such an impressive show against an opponent that was supposed to roll all the way to the Final Four. After jumping around in stunned silence, I finally shouted “Wow!” to nobody in particular. The feeling was strange, new and exciting. It was the feeling that only a real sports fan can have. It was at that point in time that I became a fan, or at least more than a casual fan, of the Missouri Tigers.