The Impressions of an infrequent guest

[FALCON FLIER]

Please indulge me as I share my impressions of my BG experience today. Though I graduated from BG in 1975, I seldom make it to a game since I work on Saturdays and live a fair distance away. I have been to many a football game down through the years and I must say today was the most impressed I have been by the atmosphere surrounding BG football.
I arrived about 2 hours before gametime. From what I had read here Friday I wanted to make sure I could get a ticket. I was amazed at the number of cars already there 2 hours before kickoff. I had never seen that before. I was impressed by the number of fans wearing BG apparel. I think I only saw 2 people wearing OSU shirts. This was a real BG crowd today. It certainly looked like every section of the stadium was close to full. If there were only 19,000 there as someone posted, I would be surprised. I thought at least 24-26,000. I liked the band and their new uniforms (new to me anyway). My brothers are big OSU fans and they look down their noses at anything that is not "big time" like OSU football. I would have been proud to have taken them to BG today. The crowd was into the game and the atmosphere was first rate.
The only thing that bothered me and took away from an otherwise wonderful experience was the constant blaring noise from the PA system. That hip hop or whatever that noise was was so loud and irritating that it took away from the atmosphere of college football. I sat around the 7 yard line on the East side nearest the scoreboard so maybe I was just too close to the speakers. But I heard a lot of people complain about the loudness and the choice of music. They did tone it down a lot for the second half and interjected some other types of music and that helped a lot. I wanted to hear the BG band play the fight song during time outs and the students cheering but they were drowned out by the PA system.
Other than that it was first rate and would expect a similar atmosphere when OU comes to town. I only saw 2 or 3 Temple fans (or people who would admit to it). OU should bring a pretty nice bunch. My complaints were very minor compared to the enjoyment I experienced. One final thing, I couldn't help but look at the North endzone and visualize what it will look like when the Sebo Center is completed. I think it will be a terrific addition and will enhance the look of the Doyt.

[Warthog]

Agree on the volume issue. It seemed like it was a technical issue as the announcer (same clueless bozo) wasn't loud, just the music selections.

Here's a snippet from this weeks game on why the announcer is clueless: Temple has the ball, third down on their own 25. We stop them cold for no gain. "Temple fails to convert and Bowling Green will take over on the Temple 25 yard line" as the Temple punt team was coming onto the field.

[orangeandbrown]

Or when he mispronounced Omar's last name.

[FalconKing]

Or when he mispronounced Omar's last name.

Yeah, I was kinda wondering who that Omar Johnson guy was.......

[orangeandbrown]

Or, Omar JACK-obs.

Of course, Jacobs is an uncommon name.

[Falcon Fanatic]

Nice post, Falcon Flier. I agree with everythng you said. I also was VERY impressed with the amount of people wearing orange yesterday!!! Standing in the Falcon Club tent area just before half time, looking up at both sides and it was a TON of orange all over the place!!! Great to see!!! Only MAJOR complaint on my part was lack of Portalets out in the parking lot. Idioitic that they don't do a better job of having more there when they KNEW it would be a big crowd out there!!! GRRRR!!!!!

[Schadenfreude]

The only thing that bothered me and took away from an otherwise wonderful experience was the constant blaring noise from the PA system. That hip hop or whatever that noise was was so loud and irritating that it took away from the atmosphere of college football.

It isn't my favorite thing in the world either. I'd like to hear more out of the band and less out of the PA system. Every time they play one of those rave-till-dawn type things, is one less time they can play Ay-Ziggy-Zoomba or something.

I sat around the 7 yard line on the East side nearest the scoreboard so maybe I was just too close to the speakers. But I heard a lot of people complain about the loudness and the choice of music.

I also think it was a little loud. I think they struggle to get the volume right. If the wind is whipping around, it can be a little tough to hear. If not, it can be too loud, especially for those on the south end of the stadium.

I suppose no one is every going to be completely happy about the music. I'd put in a vote for more hip rock: White Stripes, Stooges, that sort of thing. To me, that fits us, and it would be a little different than the usual Jock Jam monotony. But you'll never everyone to agree on music.

One final thing, I couldn't help but look at the North endzone and visualize what it will look like when the Sebo Center is completed. I think it will be a terrific addition and will enhance the look of the Doyt.

Yes, I'm getting excited about it.

[04forheisman]

Who do I contact to get an audition for the PA announcer job. I will doit for free, and I am sure that I can pronounce every player's name.

[BGSUSynchroSk8r2006]

I cannot STAND our PA announcer!!! He is HORRIBLE!!! He doesn't know the names of any of our players, for this sport or for any other sports we have. He doesn't have any enthusiasm when we get a 1st down or a touchdown, he's just monotone and dull the entire game!! Didn't he just shell out a lot of cash to the athletic department to get this gig?? You'd think if he cared enough to pay up in exchange for the job, he'd actually care enough to be excited or learn the players' names. They need to get a clue and bring back Brady Gaskins, he was AWESOME!!! ANYONE but this shmuck. It brings down the quality of the game atmosphere a lot!

By the way, I LOVE the addition of the bells and the music on every 3rd down. LOVE IT. Once more students and fans catch on to its purpose and get revved up by it, it's going to be awesome!! We should have the hang of it by the time we play TU next month!!

[SaxyIrishTenor]

Yeah, the us bandos kept wanting to play but before we could start they'd play what we call "canned music" and we got shut down.

Down with the canned music - strike up the band!

[BGDrew]

Hell's Bells is ok, but unoriginal. That school up the road did it against us last year.

[hammb]

Not only did we play too much of that crappy music, but it was WAY too loud for our speakers. I'm not sure if we've blown those new speakers in the scoreboard yet, but they sound TERRIBLE. They're very distorted and crackling whenever they play music on it. Maybe they have just been playing it too loud, but it sounds awful.

[momtartin]

I was getting VERY angry at the stupid music being played instead of hearing the Band. We even had 2 bands to play music, yet I rarley heard them play. I got severly pissed when the loudspeakers were playing OVER the band, thats not cool

[Redwingtom]

Here's an idea, put microphones on tall mic stands in front of the band. They do it at Ford field and it sounds pretty cool over the PA.

And for the announcer, he may not have been totally to blame him for the 4th down issue as I am sure they have a spotter relaying information to him who may have screwed up. Just a thought.

[BGSU-Ph.D.]

I was impressed by the number of fans wearing BG apparel. I think I only saw 2 people wearing OSU shirts. This was a real BG crowd today.

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I wanted to comment on this because it reminded me of a similar discussion I heard and the resultant “scientific study” I conducted. Apparently, not too long ago, more BGSU students wore Big Ten apparel on campus (particularly OSU) than wore BGSU apparel. I told a guy that this was no longer the case. With this in mind, on two separate occasions, I counted those wearing BGSU apparel as opposed to those wearing OSU apparel as I walked through campus last fall. To the best of my recollection, the count went something like this:

Day one (pleasantly surprising):
BGSU - 30
OSU - 2

Day two:
BGSU - somewhere in the high 20s
OSU - something like 5

So, for what its worth, our students are getting the message.

EDIT: I should add two clarifications:

(1) I did this during the week - Tuesday and Wednesday I think.
(2) I was pleasantly surprised that those wearing BGSU stuff so greatly outnumbered those wearing OSU. It is clear to anyone who walks across campus these days that BGSU stuff outnumbers all of the rest.