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Grassroots movement by students proves students can start tradition

Sports Editor

Published: Sunday, September 11, 2011

Updated: Monday, September 12, 2011 21:09

erika

On Saturday, Bright House Networks Stadium played host to a sold-out crowd of 45,671, witnessing the Knights' historic 30-3 victory over Boston College. Something got the message across to UCF fans to fill the stadium, and it wasn't a patch or a salute that got butts in the seats.

It was a red bandana.

It was nice to see fans lug over to the stadium after a day full of tailgating. It was nice to see fans actually stay after halftime. But the nicest thing about Saturday's sold-out crowd? The grassroots red bandanna movement that swept UCF nation. Even ESPN's College Football Gameday took notice.

For a school that couldn't even sell out the Conference USA Championship game last year, the grassroots movement started by two UCF students got people in the seats.

The Knights don't need a marketing campaign, a patch or a fabricated salute to get people in the stands. What worked? A grassroots movement, started by students. Not a marketing department.

UCF Athletics Association's attempt at establishing some sort of tradition, the UKnight salute, has been an absolute bust. Seeing as how the crowd has responded, it's obvious that the whole idea has been a failure, considering that none of the players, coaches, cheerleaders or fans perform it. Well, fans perform it … mockingly.

Imagine that. A forced tradition not working?

UCF fans: keep doing what you're doing.

Keep rejecting the dumb idea of the counterfeit hand motions. Keep rejecting force-fed traditions. Keep doing what you're doing — starting your own traditions.

That's the way tradition happens. The students and fans start it, not a marketing department.

Let this be an example of how grassroots traditions can happen.

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8 comments

Mookie
Wed Sep 14 2011 22:23
The CFF never actually reports on athletes or writes stories, they just do columns and crap like this. How about some real reporting once in a while? Or are we gonna get 3 more columns frrom this broad next week?
Season Ticket Holding Student
Wed Sep 14 2011 12:56
Most of these comments have it exactly right. The game sold out because of many reasons, with the whole red bandanna not being much of a factor at all. First of all, the game was against an annually strong ACC opponent. Besides our away game at BYU, this was probably the biggest game of the season for the Knights. Next up, we weren't guaranteed a blowout like week one, fans don't come or leave early when we're up 30 points at the half. Having a legitimately good game gives reason for the seats to be filled. Also, we live in Central Florida, a large portion of the population here comes from the North East, so a game between UCF and BC would be intriguing for them. And lastly, there's the student lottery, "selling out" a game at UCF will always be a complete misconception as long as the school is still giving out free tickets to students. The red bandanna was a very nice idea and a great tribute to someone who gave their life, but there is no correlation between wearing a bandanna and attending a football game.
Anonymous
Tue Sep 13 2011 22:23
You are really clueless if you believe that the red bandana movement is why 45k were at the game. It was a moving story, but 45k went to the game to see a BCS team, Boston College, play a very good UCF football team. Someday I wish that journalists would actually publish articles that were based on facts, rather than opinion and agenda. Oh well.
Anonymous
Tue Sep 13 2011 18:19
it was sold out because it was family weekend and an ACC opponent
Anonymous
Tue Sep 13 2011 11:48
This game was a sellout because corporations like mine jumped on the winning bandwagon and encouraged employees to attend. The red bandana had little to no effect on ticket sales. You missed hard on this article. Poor perspective to say the least. Winning and big games draw fans.
Wait, what?
Tue Sep 13 2011 10:16
How on earth did that put butts in seats? It was a great tribute but in no way was it a driving force behind ticket sales. The game was pretty much sold out by the time the facebook group was even started.

Go take a business course, please.

Knights fan
Sun Sep 11 2011 19:44
It's not a tradition, it's a movement. Not to mention, UCF fans want to start wearing a red bandana every year for the week 2 Sept. game.
Anonymous
Sun Sep 11 2011 19:39
It's not really a tradition since they're never going to play Boston College on 9/11 ever again.




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