I have to agree with John in that there is nothing wrong with heckling as
long as it is clean.  I personally don't think that there is any place for
profanity at sporting events.  I was, for 5 years, part of a group of fans that
referred to ourselves as the a------ guys.  The swearing in the name is not
indicative of our style of cheering, however.  We always stood, not sat, in the
back of the Slapshots section at Munn and generally pissed off everyone around
us because we wouldn't shut up.  One guy went as far as to punch one of our
members simply because he was cheering vociferously for our favorite Spartan,
Walt Bartels.
   The point is that we were always loud, always obnoxious, but rarely vulgar
or crude.  We considered ourselves to be some of the best fans in the building
because we were cheering all of the time.  We admitedly swore on rare occasions
(usually against u-m) but the incidents were not common.  There were simply too
many families with small children around, and we had too much class to ruin the
game for those around us.  It is interesting to note, however, that by being
loud all of the time, we got blamed for many of the vulgar chants that went up
from the student section, even though we did not start them.  We even got a
message, via the slapshot newsletter, from Coach Mason to clean up our act.
I don't know if this happens to John and other clean, loud fans but I hope that
they keep on yelling for their favorite teams (even u-m) because we don't need
any more fans sitting on their hands.  Just my 2 cents.
                                                   --Steve Moerland
                                                     MSU '92
                                                Innocent of all charges