Twenty-six thousand university students, faculty, staff, community members and families packed Peden Stadium this past weekend. Twenty-six thousand fans witnessed our Ohio football team dismantle the New Mexico State Aggies in the first home game of the season. Whether you were there to see a Bobcat football blitz, or the Marching 110 and a variety of local high school bands play together at halftime, twenty-six thousand members of the Athens and Ohio University community came together Saturday night.
Ohio football is not a powerhouse. We don’t often receive national recognition unless we take down a team like Penn State in a fantastic underdog moment from time to time. I know that. But what I have come to learn over the past two years while attending Ohio’s first and finest university is that large events like last Saturday’s football game bring together a community that I hold close to my heart.
I love walking into Peden Stadium on an autumn evening. I watch the sun set over the Hocking River as it casts a creeping shadow onto the turf field, listen to the blast of a cannon as the team enters the stadium, and enjoy the roar of the crowd. All of these things tell me that the opportunity for Saturday night magic has arrived. Saturday does not only bring the possibility of a great football game, but a new opportunity. An opportunity for high school marching band members to perform in front of a sellout crowd with the Most Exciting Band in the Land, opportunities for elementary school children to race on the field alongside the Hamburglar and Grimace (the purple dude from McDonald’s) and for students to try kicking field goals for scholarships. A game like this is the opportunity to engage with thousands of new first-year students as well as thousands of upperclassmen, and the chance for our community to cheer the Bobcats on for what I’m sure will be a historic season.
I know we’re still a small school in terms of athletics, but I do think that it allows us to engage with our community to a greater degree than many other places that may not be able to do. If any companies can help contribute to our community, I say let them. I’ll cherish every “Citizens Bank First Down” I can get so long as it’s for my Bobcats. In closing, let’s make it a great season; let’s make it a great year. Let’s come together and cheer for the Ohio University we love so much. #OUOhYeah
Alex Martinez is a junior studying Interactive Multimedia.
