Originally Posted by The Historian
Firedog:
In a thread several years ago I posted the info below in regards to basketball attendance. Most of it involved student attendance and how it contrasted with the late 1980s and early 1990s.. One of the ideas dealt with flyers in Ruston and the surrounding area, which has been mentioned already. However, if done right, I wanted to give you an idea of how effective it can be. Also, the beer party really did happen. It was a wild night in December, 1989.:
The simplest, yet most effective example I have seen on Tech's campus regarding advertising involved flyers. In February, 1989, our men's basketball team was fighting for wins in an effort to gain an at-large NCAA tournament berth, as the old ASC was in its infancy and had no automatic bid.
In our previous three home games, we had drawn just over 3,000 for a game with USL and just over 2,000 for a game with UNO. A non-conference game with McNeese, on an icy night drew 1,000 people.
Needing an idea as to how to attract a crowd for a big Saturday night game with ArkansasState, The Insider, who was SGA president at the time, came up with a flyer about the game. But instead of just passing it around campus, he burned up the SGA copy machine and another on campus, and basically made enough to cover every parking lot in and around Ruston.
The day before the game, 30-40 students put them on windshields until they were gone. The result: 6,647 saw the game, a 55-54 Tech win. Coach Eagles couldn't believe it had such a dramatic effect. He talked about it at-length on his coach's show.
In searching for tapes during that era, I came across the game against UL-Lafayette in 1991-92 and the MTSU game, which was on ESPN during the 89-90 season.
The Louisiana-Lafayette game drew 6,211, the tenth largest crowd for a men’s game at the TAC. The MTSU game drew about 4,500, but it was a 10:30 p.m. “Midnight Madness” tip-off. For both games, the majority of the crowd was students. As a matter of fact, the student turnout was incredible.
We’ve had good student crowds at a handful of men’s games since then, but I don’t think any of them approached those others in numbers. Don’t get me wrong, I do love the intensity of our most avid student fans.
In asking a few people around campus what was different in those years, especially those games, several said that the student groups did a better job of communicating and organizing with each other and the athletic department. At least more so than today.
I was reminded that the promotions and activities surrounding those games was student driven. Getting the word out about a game and the activities that went along with it was much easier, because much of the student body was involved in some way. Their leaders had taken the responsibility for the success or failure of a particular promotion or the attendance at an event, whether it is a Dunkin’ Dawg or Lady Techster game. It got everyone involved.
I think our athletic department is trying to get the word out on campus by posting flyers, etc. And there is nothing wrong with that. But it would probably be more effective if efforts on campus were centered around getting 15-20 student leaders to come up with their own ideas and then follow through on the best of them.
The tapes are interesting to watch. The students in the red sections, every red section where there were students, stood the entire game. For both games, students filled the blue sections from the corner of the arena to the right of the band to past mid-court. Several students waived red Tech flags throughout the game. There was tons of confetti and shredded computer paper flying through the stands.
At one point, the broadcast crew from K62 in Lafayette, which I believe in now the UPN affiliate there, got hit with confetti. They talked at halftime about the great atmosphere and how great it was to be in the middle of it. The play-by-play man for ESPN called it a madhouse.
My campus contacts did have other memories about those games. One said he remembered a balloon drop before the UL-Lafayette game when hundreds of red and blue balloons were dropped from the rafters above the student section when Tech’s players were introduced. He remembered thinking “am I at a game or a political convention.”
He also remembered Jim Robken, who was in his first or second year at Tech, organizing a “sixth-man warm-up” before that game. With “Shout” from Animal House blaring over the P.A. system, he remembers what it was like to have thousands of students singing along to it.
For the MTSU game, several RA’s in Caruthers Dorm created an ESPN sign in white Christmas lights on the roof of the dorm. They borrowed a television camera from someone in Ruston who owned one. When the cameramen began to arrive at the arena hours before the game, the RA’s convinced one to go with them and shoot different things on campus, like the ESPN sign, the Lady of the Mist, and WylyTower. The ESPN sign made the telecast.
The most interesting story was also in relation to that MTSU game. Apparently some student group jokingly suggested a beer party before the game, not thinking it would ever be considered. Keith Prince and Paul Miller took it seriously, knowing it would help with turnout to a game that might not end until 1 a.m. They had a beer truck parked inside the gates of Joe Aillet Stadium under the Press Box. For the pre-game party, anyone who could show a Tech ID along with a driver’s license showing they were 21 could pass through the gates and drink free beer. I don’t think Tech would allow that today, but I could be wrong.
