UConn Goes Patriotic

Back on Spetember 16th, 2011, during the football game versus Ohio State, UConn started saying the Pledge of Allegiance before playing the Star Spangled Banner. This was at first done as a remembrance of 9/11, but school officials want it being said at football and basketball games because they want traditions associated with the sports. As well, Paul Pendergast, the UConn interim athletic director, thinks it would "enrich the university" by saying the Pledge. According to UConn message boards, some people like it and others not so much. One poster said that they feel honored to say the Pledge and sing the Anthem whereas another believes that people that would not want to say the Pledge may be pressured into doing so, even though they are not being forced. In terms of the athletes, UConn Women's Basketball player Bria Hartley thinks that "It's a good tradition. It represents our nation well."

Pledge of Allegiance Facts:

• Written in 1892 by a socialist minister named Francis Bellamy
• "the Flag of the United States of America" added in 1923
• Fmr. President Eisenhower lobbied Congress for the adding of the words "under God" as a responce to communism

Source: Courant.com