The Roaring Reds roared back to life this year after shutting down during covid. With over 1,000 members already, the student section continues to make an impact at games.
Roaring Reds is a student supporters organization who attempts to go to all home sporting events. Noticeable by their Red overalls, a tradition brought in from other school’s supporters groups, the section can often be the loudest group
at a game.
James Hanten, the student engagement intern for the RoaringReds, helped bring the organization back. He said that both he and the
Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics, Matt Howdeshell, were interested in having a student section at home sports games. As for the name, Hanten said, “when we found out Roaring Reds stayed, that it was still an active student organization on campus.

  We decided to just bring it back and kind of make it a full fledged student organization.” Hanten also expressed how helpful it was to use the previously used name as it allowed them to use previously made t-shirts and advertising.
The original Roaring Reds student organization was founded 17 year sago in part by Beth Rutt, director of student activities. Rutt said the goal at the time was to, “increase student attendance at all of the athletic events that we host.” However the organization has changed since then. When the organization was founded it cost $10 to be a member. Now, membership is free.
There has been no larger change however than the one the pandemic caused by closing down the organization. It was only thanks to a few students that it came back at all. Kyle Thompson, graduate assistant for student activities was one of those students. An undergrad last year, Thompson worked under his close friend Colby Crowder to help lead a group called Mule Stomp at athletic
events. A precursor to the modern Roaring Reds, the main difference between the two groups was the connection with athletics, a connection he credits to Hanten.
Thompson said, “I’m just really excited for where it’s kind of taken off. It’s definitely evolved. James and getting athletics involved has definitely been a huge part of that. One other thing I’d say is like, we didn’t really have a way to really track the metric for people attending. So like getting swipers and swiping students and really putting people on track for that just really allowed us to like track the metrics and see what’s
working, what’s not working.”