Some things, admittedly, get lost in translation from English to English.

As I read the book Fever Pitch this summer, I spent much of the process muddling through author Nick Hornby’s references to soccer players and strategies. Hornby, you see, wrote Fever Pitch as his account of his life as a fan of the English soccer club Arsenal.

While the specifics — names like Bob McNab, Charlie Nicholas, Liam Brady and many others were and still are without meaning to me — Hornby’s intensely personal connection to Arsenal resonated with me.

'American Hooligan'

Tribune-Herald staff writer Chad Conine is touring the Big 12 South and beyond this fall to take a closer look at the battle between passion and sportsmanship, and to try and answer this question: Are college football fans becoming the American version of English soccer hooligans?

Read the series

• 11-07-08  THE AMERICAN HOOLIGAN, Part 4: LSU football frenzy tale of night and day 
• 10-17-08  THE AMERICAN HOOLIGAN, Part 3: Texas, Oklahoma fans full of hate -- until the whistle blows 
• 09-26-08  THE AMERICAN HOOLIGAN, Part 2: Texas Tech tries to keep fans from crossing the line 
• 09-06-08  THE AMERICAN HOOLIGAN, Part 1: Big 12 officials seek to keep rivalries intense while stamping out fan violence 
• 09-06-08  Chad Conine: Sportswriter's driving mission: Seeking out the American Hooligan 

For example, Hornby writes:

“One thing I know for sure about being a fan is this: it is not a vicarious pleasure, despite all appearances to the contrary, and those who say they would rather do than watch are missing the point. Football is a context where watching becomes doing . . .”

Obviously Hornby, like me and — face it — many of you, has agonized for an entire week, lost sleep and become worse and worse off as game time grew nearer.

After kickoff, the inner anxiety morphs into cheering (read: irrational screaming), which feels better only in that whatever was on the inside gets released into the sea of noise at the stadium (or bounces off the walls of the living room).

But all of these connections I found between my life as a college football fan and Hornby’s life as an Arsenal fan just added to my enjoyment of a book. That was, until my friend, Cameron Weed, posed an interesting question as we sat in a booth at a local bar and grill.

“Are there any American fans that have the same kind of devotion as English soccer fans?” Weed asked.

Let’s see, American sports fans who have a deep-felt connection to their team, who identify themselves with said team in acts ranging from body painting to choosing names of children and pets, and who are likely to engage in e-mail war, verbal spats, and maybe even physical altercations when their team’s honor is challenged?

“Absolutely,” I told Cameron. “College football fans.”

That conversation came back to me over and over as I continued to read Fever Pitch. The more I read, the more I wanted to write a series of stories describing the passion of fans in this part of the country.

And there aren’t many sections of the college football landscape that rival the intensity seen in the stands of the Big 12 South.

Over the second half of the summer, I began researching and collecting anecdotes that I will combine with some on-the-scene reporting this fall. Fortunately, my job puts me in the right place at the right time in some cases. I’m also planning a trip to Baton Rouge later in the season to see how the Big 12’s best stack up against the nation’s most famously rowdy crowd — the LSU Tiger nation.

Now, most fans, whether they support Celtic or the Fighting Irish, pull for their teams with unbridled enthusiasm. They live and die with their teams. But they don’t let that devotion turn them into maniacs in their normal, everyday life.

However, evidence is piling up that a certain species of fan roams the terrain of the Big 12. The conference and some of its schools have taken aim to tame the wild beast of the bleachers.

Is this a dangerous creature that needs to be ushered toward extinction or a harmless buffoon?

This is just one of the questions I’ll try to answer as I set out to find, if he or she exists, the American Hooligan.

cconine@wacotrib.com

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