As a child of the 90’s (I graduated high school in ‘95 and college in ’99, so that is definitely my era), I’ve had the feeling for the past few years, without any real tangible proof, that the world has become a lot more school-spirity in this decade—certainly, Mizzou fans are a whole lot more color coordinated than they were back in the day. This picture provides solid proof of my suspicion.

I’ve never been quite sure how to explain this—was there a knee-jerk reaction against conformity in the grungy 90’s? Does the omnipresence of the internet just make it easier to get everyone on the same page nowadays? Even ten years ago, a TV game was a rare treat whereas now it is almost expected—have we all learned how to dress/act at a Mizzou game by what we see on TV? Or is it just that in ‘98 we had basically sucked for 13 of the 14 previous seasons, so people were a bit wary about announcing their Mizzou affiliation, whereas now we’re starting to think of Mizzou as a perenial winner?

I’m not saying the color coordination is a good or a bad thing (okay, I think that the athletic dept telling me whether to wear black or gold on any given weekend smacks of a junior high pep rally, but that’s just me), but I do think that there has been a real trend toward greater outward displays of school/team affiliation, and probably not just at Mizzou games, and I’m not sure what exactly explains it.