The largest crowd for a men’s basketball game at the Stroh Center in six years packed the venue Saturday night, with 4,167 fans energized and rowdy as the Falcons defeated Toledo 80-70 in the Battle of I-75.
“Our fans are spectacular. They are everything right about college sports. They’re passionate, they show up, they’re supportive, they care; it’s an unbelievable fan base,” BGSU head coach Todd Simon said postgame. “The community is awesome; they showed out. It was just a really proud day to be a Falcon.”
The crowd fell just short of the arena’s listed capacity of 4,387. The crowd was the largest for men’s basketball at the Stroh since Feb. 8, 2020, against Toledo, when 5,000 fans packed the arena.
The team has drawn over 4,000 fans to the arena just three times over the past three seasons, all against Toledo (4,151 in 2023, 4,032 in 2024 and 4,072 in 2025).
The crowd was piercingly loud all game, highlighted by a frenzy in the student section, as members of the Falcon Fanatics held up signs and cardboard cutouts of players and Simon in a sea of orange.
“That’s (the environment) part of playing in this game; it just means more,” Toledo head coach Tod Kowalczyk said. “It means more to both schools and fanbases. It certainly means more to the players and coaches.”
The Falcons took the lead with 5:52 remaining in the first half, never looking back and leading by as many as 17 points. Bowling Green’s largest run of the game was an 8-0 flash out of halftime, sending the crowd into hysteria.
“I feel like the fans being here gave us a plus-five (points). Period. It was electric tonight,” Bowling Green senior guard Javontae Campbell, who led the team with 19 points, said.
While the crowd was as energetic as any during Simon’s three seasons leading the Falcons, it was not nearly as vulgar as the crowd at Savage Arena for the rivals’ first matchup this season on Jan. 24.
Throughout that game, the Toledo student section directed f-bombs toward Bowling Green the entire contest before repeatedly chanting “f— BG” throughout BGSU’s postgame press conference.
“I love college basketball. I love the rivalries. I love rowdy fans,” Simon said. “You don’t love all the expletives and taunting eight-year-old girls and stuff like that in the stands, like we have faced up at Toledo, but that’s part of it. It’s what we sign up for. It’s part of the deal.”
After Bowling Green’s victory, Simon emphasized the Falcons will continue to celebrate the rivalry win the Bowling Green way.
“This is a heated rivalry that we talk about in the locker room; it’s a legacy game. But we’re going to continue to win with class and handle ourselves a certain way, but within the confines of what a heated rivalry should be. So, we push the envelope up to the line,” Simon said. “But it’s a little more, I don’t know maybe the right word, but a more peaceful press conference without the f-bombs outside the doors, I’d say today.”
