Fan-dom

[oruvoice]

Just for the record, I cheered FERVENTLY for my Golden Eagles on friday. Just thought I would clarify since there were so many that wondered what I'd do...anyway, on to my point.

We need a lot of work on being fans.Here are a few suggestions.....

1. When our team comes on or leaves the floor, we stand up and cheer.

2. When the fight song is being played, we stand up and clap.

3. We wear either a Navy or White shirt to the games, my preference is Navy, but the "White Out' theme was cool during the Mid-Con title game.

4. When we are on defense, we all chant in unison...DE-FENSE (clap, clap) DE-FENSE.

These are just a few of the basics. There are more, but this is a good start. Perhaps, we can coordinate with the cheerleaders for next season to help with some of this stuff.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to be mean spirited, but between Arkansas, Memphis, and Bucknell fans in Dallas, it reminded me again how much improvement we need to make.

[ORUTerry]

It was a nice ORU crowd at the game on Friday.... The guys I came with all cheered/yelled and stood - trying to do what we could. I agree that we need to be smarter fans. Wearing the school colors would be a nice start.

[tmh8286]

Where WERE you sitting, voice??? The group that I was with, the section I sat in, and all the ORU fans around us DID EVERY ONE OF THOSE THINGS, unless, perhaps, number 4. I had people tell me that the ORU fans were louder than the Memphis fans.

I take exception to what you are saying, voice. ORU's fans performed admirably. Actually, from where we sat, we were unimpressed by BOTH the Arkansas fans and the Memphis fans.

It HAD to be where you were sitting. My perception was just about polar opposite from yours.

It was pretty much the same people at the Memphis game as it was at the Mid-Con Championship - how did we do there???

[oruvoice]

I was almost directly across from the ORU section, in the lower level, 20th row, in the 'end zone'.

Sorry tmh, just giving my impressions. Maybe I was in a bad spot. Just the way I saw it....

[tmh8286]

Let me approach this from a different direction. When you say stuff like that on the board, voice, you're preaching to the choir. All of us were doing just like you were during the game.

There may have been those there that weren't as intense as we were, but I think that those of us on the board screamed, cheered and clapped our hearts out.

[JoeyO]

Where WERE you sitting, voice??? The group that I was with, the section I sat in, and all the ORU fans around us DID EVERY ONE OF THOSE THINGS, unless, perhaps, number 4. I had people tell me that the ORU fans were louder than the Memphis fans.

I take exception to what you are saying, voice. ORU's fans performed admirably. Actually, from where we sat, we were unimpressed by BOTH the Arkansas fans and the Memphis fans.

It HAD to be where you were sitting. My perception was just about polar opposite from yours.

It was pretty much the same people at the Memphis game as it was at the Mid-Con Championship - how did we do there???

I don't know who you were talking to but I sat behind the whole section and all I saw were seated fans. There may have been scattered cheers, especially during our run but that to me does not make a good cheering section. IMHO, we were the worst fans of any there.

[JoeyO]

3. We wear either a Navy or White shirt to the games, my preference is Navy, but the "White Out' theme was cool during the Mid-Con title game.

Do you think that could start with President Roberts? Did anyone else see his burnt orange shirt at the game?

[oruvoice]

Do you think that could start with President Roberts? Did anyone else see his burnt orange shirt at the game?

No I didn't see that, but it doesn't surprise me.

Other than a small handful of fans (tmh included), our fans need some work. One of my points is proven if our own president was wearing burnt orange.....GEEZ!

[vcboy2000]

Well the fans in the stands at the Mabee have come a long way, but I also agree that there is a lot of room for improvement. We on this board are just the crew to get it started because we are all, for the most part, passionate fans.

I like the small changes voice was talking about. It's something that everyone can do. How could this be coordinated and presented formally to the fan base? Is this is job for the Golden Eagle Club? I am planning on becoming a member this year myself.

[ORUTerry]

I think it will take a combined effort between the Golden Eagle Club and the Maniacs.... The Maniacs have improved the atmosphere and enthusiasm in the Mabee Center dramatically over the last several years. Their impact cannot be overstated. The GEC has a lot of blue hairs, but that is slowly changing. In the past the crowd (and GEC members) came to a game and sat on their hands waiting to be entertained. They did not take an active part. I think that is changing.... not as fast as some of us would like, but still it is improving.

Mike Carter has lobbied for some time to have fans wear "ORU blue" to the games, much like OSU fans wear orange to their games. Blue - or white - just so we show some enthusiasm.

[MrsSmith]

I'm with tmh here. I was cheering my head off!! Our fans stood many times (I felt a little bad blocking all of the Arkansas fans in my section). The second half we were a little more quiet (we could have done better there).

I wore my new NCAA t-shirt that OldTitan sold - love it.

I also thought that the maniacs should have been in the lower section, but I honestly would not have given them my seat given the choice.

On another subject. I saw many people selling tickets for the game. We didn't go in to the Arkansas game until about 30 minutes late and they were still trying to sell their tickets and they still were high priced (I asked). I was just wondering what others experienced since some on this board were telling us that we could get really cheap tickets outside the arena.

I was extremely thankful to already have my tickets!!

I thought the Arkansas fans were as dead as their team. It isn't like we are a school near as big as Arkansas. I certainly was unimpressed with them, although I had some very nice fans sitting around us. And Bucknell didn't seem to be that excited either.

[ORU Eli]

Ya'll know more than I but just from my impressions, I think the average non-student fan is a little older than the average at most schools - or at least its more evenly distributed at other schools. This could have something to do with our fans as a whole 'lacking' when it comes to other teams.

[EasyTELGuy]

ORUTerry & MabeeJ, there are definitely things that can be done, such as:

1.) Grassroots efforts like asking all the GEC Members at the pre-game dinners EARLY next year to wear white or navy T-shirts to EVERY game!

2.) Make a collaborative, formal effort with the Athletic Dept. for them to market wearing white or navy T-shirts. Such as, on the actual tickets that say - REMEMBER TO WEAR WHITE OR NAVY!

3.) Have a recruiting effort to the Golden Eagle Club targeted toward alumni that live in Tulsa that have graduated since 1990. Ideally, all of these "younger" alumni would sit together and have a Mabee Maniacs - Alumni Styled group. Something like that...

4.) Basically, it needs to be en vogue to be an ORU fan...and all the ideas need to be targeted toward this objective... I think our teams took a step in the right direction to create this kind of community buzz.

We need some new, fresh ideas for our team to feel like we are with them that much more and we want to see them win like nothing before!!!

[vcboy2000]

Mike Carter has lobbied for some time to have fans wear "ORU blue" to the games, much like OSU fans wear orange to their games. Blue - or white - just so we show some enthusiasm.

Ok, I can't believe that this has never been done before on a wide-spread effort. It's not rocket-science. It creates a really great atmosphere that can only increase our fan base.

1. When our team comes on or leaves the floor, we stand up and cheer.

Positive Peer Pressure can be a great motivator. A group of fans that can respond appropriately in the main areas of the arena can encourage others to join in.

2. When the fight song is being played, we stand up and clap.

This might help if they knew what the fight song sounded like. It changed a lil while back, and I don't think a lot of people really caught on. I heard that in the 'olden days', the entire crowd would stand and sing the fight song before and after games. A possible solution could be to print out the words on some type of promotional give-away (ie, game cup, etc.). We could then organize a time (like we do for the Spririt Sprint) where the crowd can sing the fight song. I also like the idea of the EAGLE Train. It was pretty impressive hearing all the hog fans in AA arean do there pig call cheer. We don't have anything right now where our fans are the ones doing the cheer.

3. We wear either a Navy or White shirt to the games, my preference is Navy, but the "White Out' theme was cool during the Mid-Con title game.

This would seem like a joint effort from GEC and the Maniacs. The Maniacs did a great job getting the word out to students on campus about the "white-out" theme. It has been suggested that they keep that format of attire for the whole season (a t-shirt that all the students could wear in the section) The dressing up can burn you out, and more students would be included with the t-shirt theme as well (mid-con finals). They would need help from sports marketing or some other department to help with the rest of the fan base. The athletic dept. used to give out TTCU shirts with a big eli on the front at the baseball games. Getting more merchandise to our fans could be a start. I'm glad we have the Fan Wear booths at the games now.

4. When we are on defense, we all chant in unison...DE-FENSE (clap, clap) DE-FENSE.

Answer to #1 is the only thing i could think of right now. What do ou all think?

[Guest Baron]

On another subject. I saw many people selling tickets for the game. We didn't go in to the Arkansas game until about 30 minutes late and they were still trying to sell their tickets and they still were high priced (I asked). I was just wondering what others experienced since some on this board were telling us that we could get really cheap tickets outside the arena.

.

I purchased four tickets on the street the morning of the game for $10 over the printed price. It seemed that there were plenty of tickets available and the prices were very negotiable.

[ORUBlue]

With my connections we were in roll 9021 and we .......try!

.......and Yes mrs smith a couple of friends purchased tickets 2 for $20.

[ORUTerry]

On our ride back from the game Friday night in the van (Big Blue), we discussed all of these issues and more.... then someone made the comment that we were displaying the classic symptom of grief: anger, denial, etc......

[tmh8286]

I'm with tmh here.

Thank you , thank you, thank you!

I thought the Arkansas fans were as dead as their team. It isn't like we are a school near as big as Arkansas. I certainly was unimpressed with them, although I had some very nice fans sitting around us. And Bucknell didn't seem to be that excited either.

We had a similar impression of the other teams. I really do think that, in a huge cavernous building like that, the sound will be different in some areas than in others.

I also will amend my earlier comments to say this: we were seven rows up from the floor. We had a couple of Maniacs two rows in front of us (Jason Neusbaum and a buddy or two, complete with hair paint), three members of the women's basketball team were in front of me, and my three boys were there as well. The people that I could see and that were around me were active participants in the game. I don't know what was going on behind where I was sitting.