“I guess I am officially done with East Tennessee State University. A small time school, with small-minded students, destined to stay small-time forever.”
These are words of a recent poster on the discussion boards of the Buc Friends and Football Foundation’s (BFFF) Web site in response to students voting down the football referendum on April 11.
In the days leading up to the football vote, I had been told over and over again how football would improve our university. However, until now, I never expected that statement to be true.
Weeks before the football vote, as expected, expensive-looking signs sprung up all around campus telling students to vote “yes” for the return of the sport. However, what I did not anticipate was the vote “no” propaganda that would soon take its place.
With only days left until the vote, impaled footballs – footballs with actual wooden stakes driven through them, along with chalk messages on sidewalks and duct tape covering up those expensive looking signs started replacing the previous messages asking us to vote “yes,” all bearing the simple response: “No.”
The “anti-football” campaign wasn’t a battle of money. These were the students who could barely afford the football fee, which meant they couldn’t afford large cookie cakes or pricey marketing campaigns either.
My mother always told me that life wasn’t going to be fair. For in the real world, the people with money, power and little understanding of the people they govern are the ones who call the shots.
It is the same philosophy as the old saying: “Rich men start wars, poor men fight them.” And this was exactly what was happening at ETSU, and over a sport that students never asked to be resurrected.
No one expected April 11 to turn out the way it did. However, just as the BFFF had promised, but perhaps not in quite the way they had expected, a “new era” had in fact begun.
Sorry mom, but you were wrong about this one. Sometimes, life is actually on your side.
During the days of April 10-11, over 3,200 students cast their ballots, telling the school and community exactly what they thought about ETSU football and the fee that came with it. This is more than double the turnout that SGA elections usually elicit.
Last week, when a controversial preacher stood outside on the Borchuck plaza, students responded. His presence drew a crowd of about 200 students each day. They came with signs and messages, some in protest and some in agreement.
When the massacre at Virginia Tech happened, within hours, a vigil had been organized starting with only one student but quickly growing into a two-day event with a turnout of nearly 100 people each time.
This campus has never seemed more active to me. And I owe it all to the BFFF and ETSU football.
I hope that this is a lesson that we carry with us for the rest of our lives. We realize now, that a few people can make a difference . and that we have, and we will continue to do so.
Welcome, students, to “ETSU: A New Era,” home of the students whose hopes, dreams, and actions are anything but “small.

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