Cyclone Joy/Pain by Age

[Nor'MidWester]

A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit.

Shout out to the old OGs who supported this athletic department through the hard times so us youngins can experience the success we've had this era. Hopefully many of you are seeing the fruits of your faithfulness.

Maybe that's a little too deep and sentimental haha, Go Cyclones forever baby

 

[CascadeClone]

You’re saying us younger fans merely adopted the darkness?

Christ knows i was born into it.
Walden was coach all 4 years i was in college. At least i got to see Johnny in action.

 

[AltoonaFish]

Christ knows i was born into it.
Walden was coach all 4 years i was in college. At least i got to see Johnny in action.

I got mcdermott, the end of mac and chizik.

 

[Cyinthenorth]

36 and old enough to recall the highs and lows of the 2002 season, Seneca's senior year. The highs of that season were great, but the lows were pretty dark. Getting pummeled by Oklahoma after cracking the top 10, losing what seemed like all the games after starting 6-1 including season ending loss to fresh to D1 UCONN which coincidentally was my first game at Jack Trice. Then the potato bowl disaster. The season on paper is actually still a marginal success historically, but in reality it prepped me for the next decade and a half of Cyclone football that encapsulated the peak of the McCarney era in 04-05 followed by its rapid downturn, the Chiz bummer years, the Rhoads reformation followed by the dark last few seasons of his tenure. What's missing I suppose would be the futility of the Criner and Walden eras. But I feel like I've definitely danced with the devil more than a handful of times with my Cyclone Fandom. Anyone who lived through the Prohm era in basketball has a battle scar too for that matter.

 

[FallOf81]

If you didn't personally witness cute girls being passed from the lower level to the upper row in Clyde ... ya ain't seasoned.
While the FB lows have been horrible, they've made even average years taste better.

 

[rosshm16]

45 here. Football wise I remember the Walden years through today and basketball remember the last few years of Johnny through today.

Same. I feel like for basketball I've had it easy. Outside of some brief periods (McDermott and end-stage Prohm), the team has been relevant and competitive and fun to watch and follow for my entire life, and sometimes very competitive. I will go to my grave thinking the 2000 MBB team was the best in the country by a decent margin and we win that game against Michigan Stage 9 times out of 10 if it's played on a neutral floor like it should have been. That team was the best, they unfortunately just don't have the banner making it official.

 

[BCClone]

I turn 40 in three weeks.

Mike Gundy says Congrats on becoming a man in 3 weeks.

 

[clones_jer]

wow - this got some chatter. couple things I noticed in the data.

- Wrestling even only weighted at 5% has does some heavy lifting in the 1960-70s (roughly fans aged 52-65) to even bring a little joy because outside of a couple outlier years it was pretty rough for FB & MBB and WBB didn't exist.

- 2025 isn't in the data yet, but for the moment it's our best year ever (undefeated MBB & WBB really gives a big boost!)

- the "worst agony" a 23 year old ISU fan has ever experienced is 2014 or 2016, down football years where the MBB was still flying high, WBB was average, and wrestling was fair to poor. The absolute rock bottom point of a 17-23 year old fan's Cyclone experience is roughly equal to the average experience for the first FORTY FIVE YEARS of an 80 year old Cyclone's life. If you know any 80 year old Cyclones - give em a hug.

 

[Cyched]

Another little tidbit I think I see:

If we’re starting at age 8, that small bump between 33-35 ish would be due to the Fizer/Tinsley teams. They were a nice way of getting 8-9 year old me hooked on ISU hoops.

 

[clones_jer]

Another little tidbit I think I see:

If we’re starting at age 8, that small bump between 33-35 ish would be due to the Fizer/Tinsley teams. They were a nice way of get 8-9 year old me hooked on ISU hoops.

Yep, that's the Insight Bowl and Fizer/Tinsley basketball era. I thought it would be a higher blip, but there are some bad years averaged in after that (McDermott era, etc)

It's why that 30-40 year old crowd is so jumpy ... they could see paradise momentarily, then were pulled back down and given a series of nut shots for another 6-10 years as punishment for hoping lol

 

[clones_jer]

No weight to being in college while VEISHEA existed? Seems pretty flawed IMO.

yeah, it's incredibly flawed. like FB, MBB & WBB uses winning %, but for wrestling I had to use NCAA finish and normalize it to the others. Plus - I think things like bowls, bowl wins, NCAA MBB & WBB wins, conference championships / appearences etc, etc, should factor in too - but that's too much work for my pea-sized brain

 

[Cyched]

Yep, that's the Insight Bowl and Fizer/Tinsley basketball era. I thought it would be a higher blip, but there are some bad years averaged in after that (McDermott era, etc)

It's why that 30-40 year old crowd is so jumpy ... they could see paradise momentarily, then were pulled back down and given a series of nut shots for another 6-10 years as punishment for hoping lol

It was a short stretch, but it was a hell of a time to be a fan:

- MBB with the two titles and near miss against MSU
- FB finally got over the hump and won the Insight Bowl
- WBB won the conference same time as the men, right after beating UConn in that S16
- Wrestling had Cael doing his thing.

The fall from grace afterwards was when we truly became Cyclone fans

 

[Rural]

A missed extra point sort of defines one era.

 

[CYEATHAWK]

A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit.

Shout out to the old OGs who supported this athletic department through the hard times so us youngins can experience the success we've had this era. Hopefully many of you are seeing the fruits of your faithfulness.

Maybe that's a little too deep and sentimental haha, Go Cyclones forever baby

Not too deep at all. A refreshing post in contrast to many on this site who are constantly flipping their lips after every loss about either pay up or shut up.

As for joy/pain by age..........maybe the wins weren't always there, but back in the "day" it was sure fun. We all knew football was no good and every win was an upset. And celebrated as such. Everyone knew Johnny couldn't beat a decent high school team on the road but could beat the Lakers in Hilton. That was the fun!

It would seem very difficult for young fans to even grasp that concept of "fun" when college sports has become a full blown five alarm chase for a buck with the false premise that has been established that if the coach can't pay recruits seven figures the wins won't be there.

 

[HFCS]

After listening to CW & Blum last night discussing how different ages of Cyclone fans have experienced varying levels of program success, I wanted to take a stab at quantifying it.

This is a first cut - basically takes winning percentage in FB (50%), MBB (35%), WBB (10%), & Wrestling (5%) and assumes that you first start "fandom" at 8 years of age.

Long short: The ISU sports experience has gradually improved over time, but the BEST experiences are those that are currently 18 & under. For them everything's been awesome with only minor success dips for their entire life.
Being younger than 40 also puts you in a relatively positive experience with some ups and downs.
Anyone over 40 has seen some dark ****
If you're older than 68 ... I'm so sorry.


View attachment 161329

I'm going to be that guy who instead of thanking you for doing something awesome asks for you to do more work for MEEEEEE.

Is it easy to do this just basketball? Think it would avoid the massive deep floor of 80s/90s football for the core age of our fans. I agree with your methodology of making FB more of it than basketball though.

 

[CYdTracked]

I'm 46, would say that chart is pretty representative of my fan experience. ISU football was brutal when I was a teenager and my freshman year in 1998 we finally snapped the 15 game losing streak to Iowa but still finished just 3-8. Endured through the 5-19 Chizik era and the ups and downs of Rhoads too but nothing came close to how bad the Walden and early McCarney teams were. Basketball had some good years with Orr, Floyd, and Eustachy then had to endure a rough patch with Morgan and McDermott before Fred and TJ got things rolling again.

I think this is why I enjoy this current era of ISU athletics because I experienced some really rough years earlier so 7 or 8 win football years don't really get me too wound up when I've seen us get our teeth kicked in on a weekly basis some seasons. I've mentioned before I can't imagine what it is like to be a KU basketball fan as the last time they missed the NCAA tournament was 1989 and that was due to a post season ban for recruiting violations. The last time they actually missed the tournament because of their record was 1983. You wonder why their fans get upset with nearly every loss or a "down" season for them when they don't get a high seed it's because all they have been used to in their lifetime is being an elite program.

 

[drmwevr08]

I mostly came into the fold at a great time. Over 25 years now (so some awful) but mostly a better story than the entire history preceding.

 

[Cyrealist]

As for joy/pain by age..........maybe the wins weren't always there, but back in the "day" it was sure fun. We all knew football was no good and every win was an upset. And celebrated as such. Everyone knew Johnny couldn't beat a decent high school team on the road but could beat the Lakers in Hilton. That was the fun!

"Good times, bad times, you know I've had my share"
Good times:
Football: Earl Bruce years, Early Walden years, Troy Davis, Insight Bowl, Campbell years
Basketball: Johnny Orr, Hoiberg, Floyd, first Eustachy years, Otz
Bad times: watched us play a pre-Snyder K-State team to a 7-7 tie in a cold rain, years where it was seriously a question whether we could ever compete at a P-5 level in football and whether we might be headed to the Mountain West. Th Eustachy fall from grace, Steve Prohm.

 

[Cyfan1965]

I was an ISU ballboy in 74-75 under Ken Trickey (RIP) we were 13-40 and I learned all kinds of new swear words from him. "I you rebound for the MF guy in the bird costume you're fired" Hilton was booing us but we told CY we are gonna get fired if we do this. Things are much better now enjoy it.

 

[Alswelk]

I got mcdermott, the end of mac and chizik.

You and me both brother. I got a nice splash of Wayne Morgan to give it all a little pizzazz.