Here in Europe, in the northern parts, there was a strong class mentality when I grew up. The different classes consumed different kind of culture. There was mental borders between classes, workers and academical people.

I have seen clips on youtube from old NCAA-football games and it seems to be like some kind of carneval experience. Stadiums seems to be more packed than the pro-sports stadiums. Are these sports-events isolated to campus-areas or do the city/community outside the campus get involved?

Communities take those things very seriously. Why, just the other day I called EOD "Padre" and he thought I was complementing his baseball skills.

Can he still hurl the 90+mph fastball? His curve ball is still evident.

Well, Doc, you got the "90" right but the number has little to do with his pitching prowess.

As for his curve ball, my buddy Michio claims that when Jesus was a spritely young middle-ager he got stuck in one of CERN's particle accelerators and has been permanently bent ever since.

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Yes, they certainly can enjoy college sports. Sometimes it's a matter of local or state pride. Or, one of their children might attend that school.

Or ... BEER!!!

Cauda, it was a surprise to me when I first came to the US to see how popular college and high school were. College sports are followed by a cross section of people and attract huge crowds to stadiums that would equal and surpass some of the great football stadiums of Europe. St receive huge coverage in the news and even high s hop sports are reported on in local Tv news and other media. I can't speak for Sweden but in England uni sports get scant coverage and equivalent to high school sports none at all. I played cricket and football for school teams and games were mostly played in the public parks and they were never reported on even when we won championships. The major college sports are big business unlike in Europe.

Sitting here in my room I travel a lot in my mind. Going back in time by watching old clips. When I was a kid owned one Nittany Lions cap and I think I also owned a Notre Dame Fighting Irish cap. Not really sure.

Bought the hats in a store in the middle of Stockholm. Owned by a korean family.

UK sports are a worldwide phenomen. In Sweden it has been a tradition since the 70s to watch english soccer on saturday. I must admit that my favourite team is The Southampton F.C. I own two jerseys. I started to root for them as a kid because they were really never the big team but they have a nose for finding and develop talent. Many big names from that club.

My favorite is Liverpool. Watched a game there last year and IMV it has the best atmosphere of any stadium anywhere.

Only watched games on tv. Must been a real experience for you to visit a real soccer venue in the UK. The only stadium on the ”islands” I have been close to was that I stayed one night in a B&B just outside the Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow.

I grew up watching Charlton Athletic, a team that was often in Division One as the Premier League used to be called. Charlton is one of those clubs that has fallen on hard times since their place in the Premier League ten years or so ago. They are currently 7th in League Division One, the old third division. The first professional game I ever saw, I was about 11, was Charlton versus Arsenal. Arsenal won the game and I have been biased against them ever since.

My greatest thrill in sport was standing in Wembley Stadium in 1966 with about 100,000 people when England beat Portugal to book a place in the World Cup Final which they went on to win. The last and only time it has been won by England. Let's not go there.

You should be pleased with the Swedish National Team. They always seem to punch above their weight in international games. Zlatan Ibrahimovic is one of the all time greats of the game.

Really nice to read your anecdotes. Charlton is a club people around here know since the clubs last guest appearance in the Premier league. Our national team has some good young players on the way to create great careers, Isak and Kulusevski are two that comes to my mind right now. Zlatan has been a strong forward during the last two matches since his come back. Hope he remains in the national team and in shape during the European Championships. He struggles with injuries from time to time. The last national game I saw was around 2012-2013 when Sweden played against Argentina at the Friends Arena. Messi has something really special. Nice to see him live. His thinking really stood out. He could handle two-three swedish defenders at the same time.

Can't wait for the games. England has some great young talent. Now if they could just find the right person to manage them.

Had a teacher once that said he was from California. He is from america and lived here so long that he speaks very good swedish. He told us that the biggest thing was to support the university team. I never forgot how he put emphasis on that. So I had to check it out.

India just remodeled Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad to seat 130,000, and officially 1st of May Stadium in Pyongyang seats 150,000. But outside of those two stadiums, the next 8 largest stadiums in the world are American college football stadiums. 13 of the 20 largest stadiums in the world belong the American college football stadiums. The largest professional (NFL) American Football stadium would only rank 14th if it were a college stadium. And I am not the Rose Bowl or the Cotton Bowl stadiums on that list because even though they are used for American college football, they are not owned by a school and they are not located on or near a campus. So yeah, NCAA sports are a big deal in the States, even among the working class.

no

Perhaps.

But then again, you are an atheist.

I am a professional slacker. Do not try this at home.

How many of us older guys were exposed to football/soccer for the first time while out tracting in a country that wasn't the United States?