What is pride?

Pride is the thing that kept our high school football team on the field when we were getting trounced by our rivals.

Coach Butterbaugh used to scream at us, “Get out there and play for pride!” So we continued to try our best, basically to let people know that we weren’t complete losers.

Pride is what you have to put aside when you know you’ve done wrong, and have to face up to your wrongdoings. It is the thing that makes it so hard to come forward and admit that you’re guilty of something terrible. The phrase “swallow your pride” is used in this situation.

Pride is also something that U2 sang about back in 1984. In the name of love, no less.

These are some examples of how pride comes into play in everyday life, they’re not really definitions. The best way for me to describe pride is that it is the ability to hold your head high regardless of what life might throw your way. It is built up by your accomplishments, and its strength is tested when you fail.

The reason I’m rambling on about pride is because I have seemed to notice some people who obviously have little or no pride at all. It’s pretty sad, since there isn’t a single person that will respect you if you don’t respect yourself. Would you like a couple of examples? I have them for you.

This first one is a more universal example, which might make this person seem rather insignificant. It is true that people are more interested in people in their local area. But this person is a celebrity (of sorts), which might spark some interest in your minds. But enough of this lead-in, the poor sap is…..

“Hurricane” Peter McNeely. The chump who “fought” Michael Tyson in Tyson’s first fight out of prison. This man went on talk shows claiming he would emerge victorious. But we all knew the truth, that the only reason McNeely was in the ring was because he was nothing but one of Don King’s puppets.

Tyson was in the eye of the storm, it would seem. He crushed McNeely in just short of a minute and a half. It would seem McNeely had made an ass of himself, with all of his predictions proving false. But he wasn’t finished.

Now there’s the Pizza Hut commercial. What is that? For those fortunate souls that haven’t seen this ad, McNeely gets knocked out trying to eat his pizza crust-first. What won’t this man do for money? I guess some people have a price on their pride. Sad.

I’m not losing any sleep over this piece of shoddy advertising, it’s just an example. The next example is one that did bother me, and it’s something you might have experienced yourself. It took place last Saturday at Jack Trice Ice Rink, er, Field.

The Iowa State football team took on a very talented team in the Colorado Buffaloes. The Buffs came into the game ranked ninth in the nation, but Iowa State had the home crowd and the spirit of Homecoming on their side. It set up the scenario for a very good game.

It held true to form for most of the game. Colorado didn’t pull away until the fourth quarter, and actually trailed early in the final quarter. The result was an indication of where each team is right now. Colorado is a complete team, whereas Iowa State is about three-quarters of the way to being there. This logic would explain why the Cyclones couldn’t maintain their level of intensity the whole game.

The Cyclones played well, better than most people expected. They showed a lot of heart hanging in there with a national powerhouse. You’d think the supporters of the team would be very happy with the way their team had played, and that these people would’ve left the stadium feeling good about the gridiron warriors from ISU.

Think again. Rather than yelling support to the players in cardinal and gold, they chose to insult the Colorado players. When the end result was no longer in question, the fans of ISU began to chant “Jayhawks! Jayhawks!” at the Colorado players (Colorado was upset by Kansas two weeks previous).

The Colorado squad did antagonize the crowd, pointing to the scoreboard and attempting a two point conversion late in the game. But if this expression was so lacking in class, why should the Cyclone crowd sink just as low? Are we no better than that?

The word “Overrated” was also chanted at the players from CU. Did anybody ever think that maybe ISU is underrated? It seems the ISU fans are still under the impression that ISU doesn’t have a chance on Saturday afternoon.

I also overheard a fan saying that he hoped Nebraska “kicks the shit out of [Colorado] next week.” Am I the only Big 8/anti-Nebraska fan that wants to see Nebraska lose? It would improve other teams’ chances in the conference race, Iowa State’s included.

A fellow colleague of mine felt the crowd’s action had a “Hilton Magic” scent to it. I thought it stunk. A fan saying the Buffaloes had no class was like the pot calling the kettle black.

Cyclone fans, you don’t need to take pride in what other teams have done against ISU opponents. The efforts the Cyclones put forth against teams like Colorado and Oklahoma should be enough to make any ISU fan proud. After all, they’ve gone from a “Toilet Bowl” team to a squad that is getting respect. That’s good for starters, isn’t it?

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Christopher Clair is a senior in journalism mass communication from Waukon.