I have been a sports reporter for The BG News for two and a half years now and I have reported on almost every sport there is to report on here at BG.
My freshman year I reported on the men’s soccer team and the fan base was lacking to say the least, except for a few games against bigger opponents. I remember my first football game here as a student: the stadium was filled for the home opener but every game after that the stadium was lacking in attendance.
Seeing the difference between my first two years to now in relation to our student spirit and fan base that has been at all of the athletic games this year is a huge change. The stadiums have been full for all of the games so far this year including the football opener. The event that caught my attention and made me realize the growth in BG spirit and fan attendance was at this past weekend’s game at Kent State. BG hauled busses of students to Kent State Saturday morning along with the students that drove down themselves to watch their beloved Falcons. The students at that game were loud and. at times, louder than the Kent State students.
ESPN Sportscenter host and alumnus Jay Crawford even tweeted about the fan attendance that was seen at Kent State.
In these three years, I have seen each Falcon team improve each and every year. While that has a lot to do with the coaches and the players, I believe a lot of that has to do with the impressive increase of fan support each team has received.
On Falcon Fridays, there are orange shirts all over campus and for once it is not only the people that work in the athletic department. It is the regular students: the students that go to class everyday, do homework and study everyday that are showing the support for their teams.
BG sports are beginning to get more national airtime and it does a lot for the perception of our school and our students that we are getting the fan bases that we have had lately. Before the game would be on ESPN and our stadiums would be half full which looks sad and is a bad reflection on us a student body. Now, when ESPN comes they make sure to go down our front row of the student section so they can see our “rowdy” fans. Then as they pan upwards to see the rest of the student section it’s not empty there are even more loud and passionate fans that love their school and love their falcons.
As a student and a sports reporter, it is a great feeling to see our teams like volleyball, baseball, soccer, football and more competing with some of the best teams in the country. But, the best feeling comes when I walk to the games and can hear people screaming and cheering before I even walk in then I walk into the stadium and see that they are full of students and other BG fans.
Our teams work so hard to win and show to it’s fans that they are worth coming out to see. Now our fans are giving every team the respect they deserve and the teams are paying them back with wins and good games against some of the top teams in the country. We can always have more of a showing but to see the increase in just two years is an amazing feat. We can only hope the BG spirit continues and fans continue to come out to the games now that our teams are improving so much.
