Marshall University Athletics
MCGILL: Visiting fans laud Marshall faithful for welcoming atmosphere
9/25/2018 11:42:00 AM | Football, Big Green Scholarship Foundation, Word on the Herd
Herd supporters should be commended for sharing #HerdFamily message
By Chuck McGill
HerdZone.com
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – This season, so far, Marshall football has been accompanied by dark clouds and gloomy weather conditions.
In Oxford, Ohio, there were multiple lightning delays. The game in Columbia, South Carolina, was canceled because of Hurricane Florence. Rain fell, at times, during the Thundering Herd's two home games.
The rays of sunshine, though, were always there. The warmth came from our people: Marshall fans.
Following Saturday night's football game at Joan C. Edwards Stadium – which was attended by 32,349 people, the 12th-largest crowd the venue's history – visiting North Carolina State and its fan base headed home with a win. Hours later, Wolfpack fans took to social media to offer reviews from their trip to Huntington, the first game in the five-game series history played outside of Raleigh, North Carolina. A collection of messages, taken from the social media website Twitter, follows here:
"Want to take a second to thank Marshall fans for their hospitality. BY FAR the nicest fan base I've been around! Don't have enough good things to say about the experience! Had a great time!"
"Marshall fans are pure class. Had a GREAT experience Saturday night."
"You guys are my second favorite team now."
"I totally agree with what everyone has said about their Marshall experience. All of the Marshall supporters we came in contact with were so appreciative of the Wolfpack fan base making the trek to Huntington. After the game, one man even apologized for the rainy weather!"
"We had the same Marshall experience! Never have we felt more welcome. The hospitality and kindness were outstanding. So glad we made the trip. I hope we as #WPN will strive to give visitors a similar experience. Marshall gained fans this weekend (except when they play NC State)."
This is refreshing, if not new. There is a reason the athletic department uses the hashtag #HerdFamily on social media platforms. "We are … Marshall" is synonymous with "We are … family." It has been something I have witnessed since the athletic department hired me more than two years ago, and everyone within athletics, the school and the community welcomed my wife and young son like lifetime friends.
Marshall's fans embrace that mission, and it is genuine and sincere. The family concept permeates the atmosphere around the tailgates before football games, and carries over when the play begins inside Edwards Stadium. The Mountain State is wild and wonderful and pretty close to heaven, and people from here want visitors to not only see that, but experience it, feel it and take it back home with them.
That is obviously that is what happened here Saturday when NC State fans came to Huntington to watch and ACC vs. Conference USA matchup. Wolfpack fans ate in our restaurants and shopped in our stores, and more than a few purchased Kelly green gear to take with them. Their first inclination after a 37-20 win against our beloved Thundering Herd wasn't to talk smack; they wanted to thank us for the hospitality.
No amount of rain or an outcome of a game can dampen one's spirit when we welcome visitors into our house, and they leave spreading the word of how special our Herd family is here.
We already know what we have here, of course. Now, they do, too.
