Something surprised me when I was down in Champaign Sept. 8. I could not believe my eyes as I glanced out from the cramped press box of Memorial Stadium and saw NIU fans.

I wasn’t really expecting a lot of NIU fans to come down to Illinois two weeks ago. With the game being televised on ABC, it was almost a given that people wouldn’t want to take the three hour trek to the University of Illinois. Boy was I wrong.

The first wave of Huskie fans started when I was driving down I-39 Friday night in the NIU car. People passed me by, started honking their horns, waving at me or chanting “NIU! NIU!” It was a great site to see and put me in awe.

When I arrived in Champaign, just before the NIU volleyball team’s opening match in the State Farm Illini Classic against Florida, I pulled up at a stoplight and another person noticed

my NIU-rented car. He honked the horn to grab my attention. So I lowered my window and the guy screams out of the window “Go Huskies! We are going to kick Illinois ***!”

Right in front of us was a big sign hanging in front of a house saying NIU sucks, Go Illini. It was good to let everyone know the Huskie faithful was not there just to drink the whole weekend away.

As I arrived at the Ramada Inn, four ladies stopped me, thinking I was an NIU official. One of them came up to me and started to complain at the fact parking passes were raised. After telling them I was from the Northern Star and I was covering the football game, they let out a big “Go Huskies!” to let everyone know they came from NIU. I could tell that we weren’t welcome in Illini territory.

It is those types of things that reassures me there are NIU fans in the student body. Maybe they were there just to live up the Champaign nightlife. Maybe they were actually there to watch the Huskies in a game they should have won, losing 17-12, which ruined the whole trip to Champaign for me.

What also ruined my trip was reading the Daily Illini’s Touchdown Times and seeing the paper take a low blow at the Huskies. The front cover read ‘Do the Illini need the marching band to beat up on the Huskies.’ The Daily Illini also wrongly identified Anthony Falbo as the perpetrator in running over the drum and bugle corp. The person who did it was actually Brian Peterson. This is something I could go on and on about, but I’d rather not.

It was a great site to see red shirts mixed in with the blue and orange of the Illini. It was good to hear chants of “NIU, NIU” on almost every play of the game. It was like NIU had the home field advantage for a while.

Now it’s time to follow up what everyone did for the Illinois game and bring the intensity to Huskie Stadium Saturday. The season opener attendance mark of 14,426 people was horrible. There is no reason why the stadium should be filled to capacity, especially on a Thursday night.

This is something that has been said time and time again. People, the games are free. Why not take advantage of something that few colleges do? Cheer on the athletes that play for you. They represent you on the field week in and week out.

OK, I know the Huskies face Sam Houston State and you are wondering why should you go and watch a team that is in Division I-AA. Well, this is a Sam Houston State team that boasts 10 transfer students from I-A schools like Pitt, Missouri, Tulsa, Texas A&M and Baylor. The Bearkats have scored 81 points in their first two games against I-A schools this season.

This is a team that can’t be overlooked. Coach Joe Novak told the Huskies this team is almost like the Western Illinois team that walked into Huskie Stadium and beat the Huskies 27-21.

This is the time the football team needs the students. We need to show them our support of the program. Let it all happen this Saturday. They don’t want to see another 14,426 attendance. Neither do I.

NIU, it’s time to surprise me yet again.