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NEWS BRIEFS
Fans enjoy expanded events at annual MU football scrimmage
Marshall fans tailgate prior to the Green and White Game on Saturday, April 24, 2010, at Joan C. Edwards Stadium.
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HUNTINGTON -- With the start of the Marshall football season still more than four months away, chalk Saturday up as one for the "Win" column.
Tailgaters, country music lovers and football fanatics all came away from a soggy Green & White Game atmosphere with a smile.
"It's nice that they do this for us. It's for the fans," said longtime Herd fan Kelli Halstead of Huntington. "This game is particularly nice because we get to see coach (Doc) Holliday in action for the first time."
Halstead was one of about 12,000 Herd fans who packed the West Side of Joan C. Edwards Stadium to get the first really good peek at the 2010 edition of the Marshall Thundering Herd; and, while most people admitted they were on-hand for the game first and foremost, the added concert by the ACM Vocal Group of the Year, "Gloriana," didn't hurt.
"I'm here for the game, but I love country music," said Jeffrey Armstrong of Culloden. "I bought Gloriana's CD in preparation before the game and I will say that I was not disappointed."
Halstead said she thought a good addition to the music lineup would've been Huntington's own "Doulton Gang," who recently recorded a song for the 2010 season titled, "U Herd," available on iTunes.
"We have this awesome song, finally, about Marshall football," she said. "It would've been a nice addition."
Mike Hensley brought his family from Prichard to check out Saturday's events inside the stadium.
"We've always supported MU, of course, and we're getting ready for football season. We're excited," said Hensley, whose son plays football at Tolsia High School. "We don't know anything about the country music group, but we think it' a great idea and it's great for the community."
Saturday's scrimmage had much the feel of an ordinary fall Saturday around 3rd Avenue and 20th Street. Traffic was heavy, hot dogs were on grills at every turn and familiar faces -- from former coach Jack Lengyel to former quarterback Byron Leftwich -- were mingling with fans.
Angela Rouse, along with daughter Areyl Cleveland, was on-hand to support her son, defensive end James Rouse from Harrisonburg, Va.
"Everybody has been really friendly to us and we don't even know anybody," she said. "I just came to watch my son play ball."
Also in Saturday's crowd were potential Thundering Herd athletes checking out the campus and the football atmosphere.
Nate Robinson and Ramsey Henderson both attend H.D. Woodson High School in Washington, D.C., the small school that produced Leftwich. They said watching Leftwich play for championship rings at Marshall definitely made an impression on them.
"I want to go someplace where I can get an education and play some football," Henderson said. "Marshall is going to turn some things around here."
Robinson agreed.
"I could see an opportunity to do some great things here," he said. "It's pretty nice."
Marshall athletic director Mike Hamrick said he was pleased with the way all the weekend's activities have turned the one-time glorified practice into a real event.
"We want to make this weekend an event, a chance to come together in the spring, celebrate and see friends," he said. "We invited all the former athletes back because that's where it starts. Chad (Pennington) is a great ambassador for us.
"We have the same vision and that vision is to make Marshall a great place to be."
