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The Blueprints
By John Hawkes

I have a simple mission in mind. There's no cathartic experience behind this new series of "Generation Burton" columns. I didn't curse somebody out on the bus home from a game this time!

Rather, this is something that I figured out after a year full of football games, basketball games, lacrosse games, Hoya Blue meetings, pep rallies, dinner discussions, online chats, random encounters on the Metro, shuttle running between E Street and Farragut North, and a lot of hours in my apartment…pacing and yelling at the television set.

It's something I figured out after taking a step back from what I wrote last summer on improving the student fan base at Georgetown and thinking: "something's missing".

Around the time of the Hoya Blue elections this May, a friend of mine decided to give me the nickname "The Architect". I absolutely hate that nickname. As far as I can tell, it was given to me because most of my previous columns have talked about "building" something-a structure of "Dorm Captains" or a model of different types of freshmen fans-and I was somehow partially responsible for a new philosophy on how Hoya Blue was going to be run. Either that or my glasses make me look like an architect. Which is entirely possible, since the only other nickname I've been given by that group of friends is "Coke Bottles".

Leaving aside that I find using nicknames for people involved in a Hoya Blue election to be an egregious violation of any reasonable sense of modesty-I am, after all, scared of being on a Jumbotron-"The Architect" represents only part of what I wanted to accomplish with my columns.

What I did last summer was draw up a bunch of blueprints for a new student fan base. At this moment, they're still sitting on a table waiting for someone-perhaps they'll make it convenient and call themselves "The Builder" or "The Construction Worker"-to come along and lay the groundwork. Thanks to a number of dedicated, creative, and die-hard student fans I've been extremely fortunate to meet this year, at least I have some prospective builders. But even if "The Builder" and "The Construction Worker" get together with all of the "Dorm Captains" and build a beautiful new structure from my blueprints or someone else's…well, we've got a big structure. Pretty to look at. But would you want to live there?

I spent so much time worrying about thinking up blueprints for structures and sub-groups of student fans, I lost track of the fact the average student couldn't care less about whether they're a "Try Hard" or "Hardly Ever" fan when they're at a football game. They care about having fun and about the "experience". Put another way, I've never given much thought to the architecture of my house. But I do appreciate the fact that I have a pool in my backyard when it's summertime in South Florida.

My mission with the new set of "Generation Burton" columns isn't going to be to draw up blueprints for a "house" for Georgetown student fans. It's going to be to make sure that every student wants to visit that house-because there's a bowl full of Hoya Bands by the front door, the TV plays classic Hoyas games 24 hours a day, the patio intercom system plays "Jeff Green's Mom," and the closet is full of "We Are Georgetown" shirts. I'm sure there'll be a pool also.

My mission is to help spread the experience of Hoya basketball to as many student fans as I can with a column…and, yes, a dream.

In my original column, I proposed two "themes" to guide my discussion of how to improve the student fan base at Georgetown. They were:

1. The new generation of Hoya student fans can learn a great deal from the successes of Generation Burton when it comes to promoting the basketball team and developing a strong student fan base. Conversely, they must also learn from and beware of the many pitfalls myself and my fellow students fell into by the end of our years at the MCI Center.

2. Every student is significant when it comes to creating a strong fan base, and accordingly any successful strategy for promoting the basketball team (or any sports team) must take advantage of the broadest number of students possible.

I still stand by both of those themes. I believe that anybody interested in bettering student support for Georgetown's sports teams can get a good start-a blueprint, if you will-by following them.

But they are, in the end, just a blueprint, something to follow to build a pretty little house. Promoting a new kind of student fan base at Georgetown-one that truly becomes part of the larger campus culture-is going to take a lot more than a "structure". We can build it, but how do we make sure the students come?

And that's where it's important to harness the "experience" of Hoya sporting events and put it to good use. All these stories students and alumni have built up over the years, all of the t-shirts and home-made wigs and guerrilla-recorded tribute songs-these are the things, not just having the right mix of "Dorm Captains," that are going to make Georgetown sports exciting for the "average" student. And, eventually, make games more exciting (and better attended) for everyone. Think of the stories you'll be able to tell then.

So on that note, I'm going to propose two new themes for the coming articles this summer and hopefully the coming school year (I figure with the success rate of "Bad Brandon," some guy will yell these out in the student section around February 2008):

3. The people who are the most passionate about Georgetown athletics and care the most about building a strong student section are the best people to put in charge of promoting games to other students. There is no substitution for this.

4. Every student-and, in fact, every alumnus-can and should still be a part of building a strong fan base at Georgetown. The student section is just a smaller part of the university as a whole; just like in university admissions, input and stories from alumni and current students are invaluable to "prospective" students.

As the summer goes on, I hope to not only share with you some of my favorite stories from my life as a Georgetown student fan in Generation Burton and beyond, but get everyone who reads these columns to share their experiences-with other Hoya fans, with their friends, with prospective students, or anyone who might one day Bleed Hoya Blue. I encourage everyone reading to give it a try.

I'll be looking for input and stories from everywhere-each article will hopefully include an interview with at least one person I've gotten to know over the past five years. They'll share their perspectives on Georgetown athletics and building a stronger group of Hoya fans. Except for the people I talk to from George Washington. They've probably got a different set of priorities when it comes to Georgetown basketball.

A few years ago while I was at home on Spring Break, I got into a conversation with a friend's mom about some of the activities I was involved with at Georgetown. I told her I was excited because a couple of weeks after I got back, I'd be working at a few of the events during the GAAP Weekends for accepted students. She asked me why I'd spent so much time doing a lot of little things for GAAP over the years-volunteering a couple of events on GAAP weekends, calling accepted students, being a State Chair for a year.

The answer I came up with at the time was a little off-the-cuff, but I think it accurately reflects how I felt about my involvement in GAAP.

I was always interested in helping out with GAAP and especially talking to prospective students for a simple reason. Georgetown University had given so much to me during my time there-a great education, a number of lifelong friends, an unbelievable place to live, countless great memories, experiences, and stories, and of course Nathaniel Burton-that I wanted to share all of these things with as many prospective students as I could. It wasn't that I felt I owed anything to the university per se-to be honest, I don't think I'll ever come upon an accurate way to measure how much the school meant to me. It's that when you have as great an experience as I had for four years, you want to share that experience with other people. You want them to have that same experience.

Georgetown sports were probably the most memorable part of my experience on the Hilltop. I hope you enjoy the stories I have to tell.