Fighting Irish fans who did not attend the University of Notre Dame du Lac have been known as Subway Alumni since the 1920s. Somebody like Grantland Rice probably coined the term for Irish Catholic New Yorkers who adopted Notre Dame as their team and would ride the subway to Yankee Stadium or the Polo Grounds when the Fighting Irish would play there. Of course now, it refers mostly to people who might have had one Irish grandparent and go to church on Christmas and Easter and occasionally watch the game with submarine sandwiches from a national chain.
This week, I heard the expression “Dirt Road Alumni” to describe fans of SEC teams when they did not go to those universities. That’s pretty funny.
So, I got to thinking, what should we call Penn State fans who did not attend the university since we don’t have a subway and Pennsylvania roads are (nominally) paved.
From now on, I think Penn State fans who didn’t go to the university should be known as — Amish Buggy Alumni.
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