Tiger Fever
Tiger Pride was not always this gloomy. There were many instances of students stepping up and trying to plan out activities, events, or organizations that would help bolster our school spirit and create some sort of self-definition around athletics. In a letter to the editor written by current student Greg Washburn, a member of the Alpha Phi Omega fraternity, in the September eleventh, 1981 edition of The Trinitonian, he challenged his fellow fraternity and sorority members to help show support for the “promising young football team” that Saturday night.
Additionally, there was a seemingly pivotal group formed in the spring of 1983 that was meant to spark Tiger fandom on campus and throughout the San Antonio community. In a May 5thTrinitonian article entitled “Epidemic To Spread ‘Tiger Fever’ To Sweep Campus”, Beth Patillo, explains how freshman, Richard Parker, created the “Tiger Fever” campaign to “motivate students, administration, and San Antonio to take an interest in activities on the Hill.” This campaign was implemented by the Trinity Awareness Program (TAP), a committee made up of representatives from the Athletics departments, the fraternities and sororities, Public Relations, Alumni Affairs, ARHS, the Coates Center, the cheerleaders, and the Student Activity Board. Some of the ideas and initiatives the committee had in the works included tailgate parties, dances, off-campus parties before or after the game, having the mayor, Henry Cisneros, christen a “Tiger Fever Week”, and even hiring marching bands to play at all home games excluding homecoming. This plan in itself is hard evidence of a community-wide effort made by students and administrators to take football, and all other athletic attendance into their own hands. With representation from a multitude of student organizations and faculty departments, this surely could have been the grassroots effort that lead to the Tiger football fandom of the mid- to late- nineties. However, the Tiger Fever club was denied funding in their second semester by the student finance board, and without sufficient funds to host the myriad of events during the second fall semester of their existence, the club was disbanded only two years after its initial founding. This was clearly an attempt to create a true community around athletics, so why wouldn’t the administration adopt this group into their plan for Trinity’s future?