Lack of Fan Support

Lack of support towards Trinity football was not a new concept in the 1980’s, with direct accounts of wavering support dating back to 1969 in a Trinitonian journal article. In the article, Jim Dublin specifically stated “Trinity may play big-time football… but the support given to the football team by the student body is, in fact, very small-time. It could not be termed ‘inspirational’ even in the cheerleaders’ wildest dreams”. He describes the lack of fan support for Trinity’s football team, in spite of the fact that they are a successful and big time team. Although the team was coined as playing “big-time football” by this author, this term could be a bit of a stretch. The team continued to disprove this claim of big-time football throughout the 1970’s and 80’s. This is shown by a 1979 TIAA Record book that included single game and season statistical records for the entire TIAA conference, which included Trinity until 1982.

The records’ categories range from rushing stats to passing, defensive to special teams, and everything in between. The list includes records from both individual players, as well as entire teams. This source can be used as a way to compare the current Trinity football records, in order to see how the game has developed and changed over the past fifty years. The records will give insight to into how the styles of offensive and defensive play were much different in the 70’s. One example is the difference in single game completed passes. The record in 1977 was nineteen, and the current Trinity record is held by Roy Hampton at forty completed passes.citation The sport was much less high paced and exciting than it is today, which could be due to players lack of size and strength/conditioning preparation. 

There are obvious differences between the sizes of the athletes from that decade until now. This lack of size and power creates less excitement for the spectators, and this greatly shown at Trinity. The biggest player on the 1974 team weighed 235 pounds, a weight that over half of the 2018 team surpasses. This shows the superior combination of athleticism and power in football today, which creates a more entertaining game for both the players and fans. Their lack of size could be due to a lack of strength and conditioning preparation compared to the 21st century.