Our tree

Here are some pictures of The Collegian's Christmas tree for The Union's Festival of Trees:

A little Zombie. A little Hobo. A little Collegian.

"The Night of the Living Hobos," was the theme for this year's homecoming day at SDSU, also known as Hobo Day. The Collegian editing staff decided to participate in the parade this year, float, zombie and Collegian shirt included.

Check out these pictures from the parade on Hobo Day, "The Biggest One Day Event in the Dakotas!" The Collegian staff had a great time riding in the graveyard-themed float, waving to the audience and honking the horn of the truck.

Marketing Editor
-Megan Pavlow

Learning a Little From Hockey

By: Marcus Traxler
Collegian Sports Editor

I had heard things.

I had heard about how club hockey was popular at SDSU and that they have fans regularly showing up to their games. Honestly, I didn’t really believe it. I figured there was no way that people cared more about men’s hockey in South Dakota than volleyball or any of the other varsity sports at SDSU.

I was wrong.

During the Jacks 8-3 win over USD on Wednesday, 611 fans showed up to watch hockey — unpolished and mostly ugly, but hockey nonetheless. Eighty-five to 90 percent of those in attendance were students. The key demographic that every student club, organization and group on campus is trying to capture is at a hockey game, where the concern is less about the puck on the ice and more about the dead animal pelt hanging over the visitors’ bench.

By comparison, SDSU’s volleyball team had 327 people show up to watch them drop a three-set match to a pretty good North Dakota squad on Halloween night.

Why is there a difference and what is club hockey doing to get fans to watch them?

The immediate answer is the focus directed to the students. It doesn’t get more grassroots than writing the time of the game in every classroom in the Rotunda and creating an event on Facebook. They created a theme for the game against the Coyotes and had fans show up wearing camouflage or blaze orange. That plays right into the stereotype about South Dakotans, but it gets fans involved and has them actively participating in the game. Selling it as an event that you can’t afford to miss makes the four dollar admission tolerable and more fun for everyone involved, with exception of the officials. The players buy in too, making it very clear that they have no interest in playing nice with USD, and the impressionable crowd loved that as well.




Part of the hockey experience is the quirks. The scorekeeper at center ice is dressed up in blaze orange and regularly engages with the referees. After almost every SDSU goal, the scorer would jump up into the glass to celebrate with the students. (Personally, it was funnier when USD scored and did the same thing in front of the SDSU students.) Every song that was played over the sound system was one students were familiar with. The only one that wasn’t from their era was Neil Diamond’s ‘Sweet Caroline,’ which every person with any ties to American culture will have heard at least five times before. 

For the SDSU athletics department, the students can’t and likely won’t be the focus, because they don’t fund the sports like season-ticket holders, alumni and donors will and currently do. Outside of liking both SDSU and ‘Sweet Caroline,’ students and big-money don’t have much in common when it comes to sporting events. A look into the future doesn’t bode well for athletics, though. By alienating students now, you can risk losing donors and supporters later.


It’s time to embrace the students. Embrace everything that they enjoy about SDSU. Kids love to do the Bernie dance. Clean up the lyrics a tad and you have something that fans look forward to doing, much like the Interlude Dance at UNI or Jump Around at Wisconsin. Encourage them to dress up in blaze orange or like hobos and tell them to yell for a couple of hours like they do with the BS chant at the refs but direct it in favor of the Jacks. Kids will dress up in blaze orange; they won't dress up for the Corduroy Classic. (Hey, maybe that's an idea.) The residence halls are probably good for a couple rounds of dorm-storming before basketball games. Based on the increased power of SDSU in the Summit League, I would see if I could get cowbells back while I’m at league meetings.

Is the coyote pelt too much? Absolutely. Will you see Nate Wolters jump into the student section after a made three-pointer? No. The athletics department should make nice with USD and grow the rivalry in a different manner but they can take the attendance for games against the Bison and Coyotes for granted. If students were aware about IPFW coach Chris Paul’s propensity to call SDSU just “South,” people would probably begin to dislike the Mastodons.
 
It’s no longer enough to be just seen and heard and expect students to show up. Throwing a message at people doesn’t mean it’s effective. Throw it to the people and let them run with it.

The Collegian staff = Random

By: Megan Pavlow
Marketing Editor

One word that comes to mind when I think of the Collegian staff is "random." I never knew what went on in room 069 of The Union until I started working for the Collegian this year.
This series of pictures gives you a peek into what happens in the Collegian office on production night, which is usually every Tuesday. I took these pictures my first week in the office with the editing staff and have enjoyed and will continue to enjoy the randomness of the Collegian staff this semester.