Bobcat Caravans conducted by Ohio Athletics are like camping trips with extended family. But instead of s’mores and ghost stories, caravan attendees are greeted with hors d’oeuvres and speeches.
Ohio Athletics once again has made its rounds connecting with alumni, peddling Bobcat Club memberships and touting its coaching staff at 10 stops throughtout the state and another in Parkersburg, W.Va.
About 12 athletic-department employees, including Media Relations personnel, coaches and athletic directors, hit the road for the past month to update the state about Athens — but there’s a lot to report this time around.
Jim Schaus, Ohio director of Athletics, touts one of the top football and men’s basketball combinations in the country, along with the potential construction of a multipurpose center.
That’s not to mention remodeling the men’s basketball and football locker rooms. And it sure doesn’t hurt to carry around a big bowl of potatoes and a Mid-American Conference Championship trophy to signify the past year’s success.
“More than anything, we won 39 games in football and basketball last year, which is second in the nation,” said Dan Hauser, senior associate athletic director for External Operations. “Because of that, people are more in tune to the teams.”
Ohio Athletics has made it a priority for the past four years to reach out to fans throughout the state by renting space in popular area restaurants and presenting the state of Bobcat athletics to those in attendance.
Director for Annual Giving Rob Norris said the caravan’s goal is to bring a little slice of Athens to those who aren’t able to make it back to their home away from home.
“For seven or eight months of the year, we’re constantly telling people to come to Athens for games and such, but we never go to them,” he said. “But this is our one opportunity to go to the fans and bring what we have to them.”
On each trip, Schaus’ pump-up speech precedes presentations from personnel such as football coach Frank Solich and newly hired basketball coach Jim Christian.
“As far as the crowds go, it has definitely helped,” Norris said of recent athletic success. “Every place we’ve gone, there has been a bigger crowd than we had last year. We’ve been doing these for four years now, and if people have been to them, they come back next year and bring a friend.”
Allowing fans and donors to interact with the coaching staff has driven up the events’ popularity, and it likely provides dividends financially as well.
“There’s no hat that is passed along to gather money,” Hauser said, but he added that collecting Bobcat Club donations is a secondary priority.
“Every time we’re doing a caravan, we’re bragging about our athletic success but always our academic success too,” he said. “Of course we talk about how the Bobcat Club supports scholarships for those athletes.”
Increased media visibility is another initiative behind the caravans. Although outlets from Ohio’s larger cities might not make many trips to Athens, making the trek to a more metropolitan area provides a chance to reach larger and different demographics with Ohio’s message.
“The thing that’s really great about this is that we’re able to go around to different parts of the state and talk with several different media entities in those regions, which is good for us because we have a lot to promote right now,” said Tom Symonds, assistant athletic director for Media Relations.
Symonds said he routinely reaches out to local news outlets before hitting the road. If 100 to 200 people show up for the caravan, exponentially more households can be reached through TV or newspaper markets.
Symonds noted that, when the Bobcat Caravan was in Cleveland earlier in the campaign, three of the city’s four TV stations made the trip to give the Bobcats some face time.
jr992810@ohiou.edu
