Mjohn1988 wrote: ↑Mon Jun 10, 2019 7:21 pm
Doug,
I’m going to tell you a few things about myself just so you know that I’m a serious fan who’s big on our football traditions. I’m a 1988 graduate, I’ve been on the turf at KBS in uniform and I haven’t missed a home game in 13 years. I have those 7, yes 7, home dates on my calendar for 2019 and unless something completely unforeseen happens I’ll make it 14 years in a row this year. Those days in Boone are awesome. I believe that winning teams and solid traditions make for the best game day experience and I love our traditions. I think things are getting better but for a while we used way to much music from the PA system. We played music over the band and over the fans. Our game day traditions should be driven by the students and the fans. The band should play more and the fans should cheer louder and the PA system should only be used to support and enhance what the band, the cheerleaders, the students and the fans are doing. I say all this to ask if you would consider changing one of our traditions, that being the Sean Connery, “welcome to the Rock”. Don’t get me wrong, I both respect and like the intro, it has served us well. I also am grateful to the folks who gave it to us. But, I think we can improve on what they started. Over the last couple of seasons it has struck me as odd that a Scottish actor with absolutely no ties to ASU is literally welcoming folks to our football home. So what I’m going to suggest is that we change very little about that welcome, really only that we have App. Folks deliver that line, “welcome to the Rock”. Now I know we tried this before with the Eric Church video and frankly I liked it but I think it had one big flaw. It changed too much. Eric changed how the line was delivered, he paused and then sort of stuttered out the line. That line, “ welcome to the Rock”, is a launching point and it must be delivered in the same rhythm that it been delivered in for years. I’m only suggesting that App. People delivery the line. I’ll give you an example of what I mean. Our very first game this year is Coach Jerry Moore day. This is a day made for this change. So you get with coach Moore and have him record the line, “welcome to the Rock”. You get it just right, in rhythm just like the fans have heard it hundreds of times. The hype video plays but you include little clips of coach Moore and at the end Coach Moore not Sean Conner comes up and delivers the line. What Mountaineer fan wouldn’t love that. Our guy, a real Mountaineer welcoming us all to his home, our home. Now that said you would still have 5 home games to fill with different folks or groups, but I think that would be easy. Week 2 could be AE or I really think that Marching Mountaineers would be a great choice. The whole band recorded from the stadium. I think our fan base could really get behind this. It would be like a fan of the game thing. I’m going to list some additional thoughts on possible “fans” of the game below. Two words of caution, it has to be delivered in rhythm and it should never be sold. We should never see the president of xyz cooperation delivering the welcome line, it has to be about the players, the students and the fans.
Possible fans of the game:
Senior day: the senior football class, easy choice.
Hero’s day: This one gets me fired up. It could be as simply as one of our brave military folks and his or her family. Or we could give it a local flavor and have a group of local first responders and not only let them deliver the line but have them lead the team onto the field. We could also do this with a group of military folks, each with the flag of their service, leading the team out. What would really be cool is to have one of our hero’s deliver the line from the cockpit of their plane or the deck of their ship. Lots of possibilities.
I mentioned the band and I think they could be one of the best of all. You could record the line but what would be really cool would be to have them deliver the line live. And they are a group that could pull it off. Half facing east, half facing west, the time comes and live from the field, “welcome to the Rock”.
Former star players and groups from special teams. You could even use non football, athletes. Let’s say basketball or soccer or wrestling has a great year. Recognize them with the honor of delivering the line. I also think player groups, like the offensive line could work well.
The students, there are a group of students that show up early on Saturday, faces painted, dressed in black and gold. They want that front row, west side, 50 yard line spot. Watch for a couple of games, see who they are, gather them up and let them record the welcome line and then on game day pull them out of the stands, save their seats, and let them lead the team onto the field and then they go back over the wall and into their spot.
More ideas for the students, put out a call for students to come to KBS one night and fill the west side student section. Then have the whole section deliver the line. What would really be awesome is if this could turn into a live thing.
Fans: we give away a grill at the end of the year for the tailgate of the game. How about the winner gets to record and deliver the welcome from their tailgate spot?
I know this is long winded. Thanks for taking the time.