At the nexus where college experiences and sports fandom meet is a place of belonging to something bigger than you are, a place of pure, unconditional support and joy.
At the University of New Mexico, we call it the student section at the Pit. And this basketball season it is so good to see, and quite literally hear, it’s back.
Woof, woof, woof!
UNM senior Nolan Murphy — an Albuquerque native who’s working as a student assistant with the athletic department — was tapped this season to bring the student section back. And boy has he. Dubbed the Howl Raisers, the up to 1,100-strong student-section game attendees are rightly back courtside. They show off costumes, posters, DJ music and, of course, the band. And they have brought back traditions, from chanting at visiting team players who commit fouls, to crumpling issues of the Daily Lobo prior to tipoff, to working off a “trash talk sheet” known as the Howl List.
Local businesses have gotten in on the act, helping boost student attendance with cutouts of UNM players or figures (thanks Academy Reprographics), food, drinks and more (thanks ThetaPoint, Sonic, Whataburger and Paleta Bar).
Murphy’s mentor, senior associate athletic director Ryan Berryman, has seen the student section “at its best and I know what it can be.”
Keeping Lobo spirit going takes fans — from students, faculty and administrators to alumnae and businesses. It is energizing to have the Pit once again be one of the loudest places to play in college basketball, and for UNM students to share some of their best college memories with all of us.
This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.
