HURD attempts to expand membership
by Curtis Lundstrom
sport senior writer
Duke has the “Cameron Crazies,” San Diego State has “The Show” and now Utah State officially has “The HURD.”
Once an exclusive student group, the HURD has broadened its membership to include any and all Utah State students in the stands at sporting events.
“We wanted to make it so that every student would be a part of the HURD and be a part of that energy and excitement that goes along with it,” said HURD President Skyler Clements. “We’ll be working more with ASUSU for the direction of the HURD.”
ASUSU athletics vice president Karson Kalian explained how students are part of the HURD.
“It’s no longer exclusive, now it is all-inclusive,” Kalian said. “Every student is a member of the HURD. The HURD is the student section. We’re trying to bring more people to games by opening the HURD to everybody. We don’t have membership fees, there’s no dedicated HURD section, it’s just everybody.”
Along with re-designing the university logos, Nike branded the HURD with its own logo -making it the only student section in the country with a national brand name sponsor – and donated more than 3,000 t-shirts to the organization.
University Athletic Director Scott Barnes said Nike representatives were impressed by what they saw at an Aggie basketball game in February 2011, when “Wild” Bill Sproat dressed in a teapot costume and danced during free throws while the rest of the student body sang “I’m A Little Teapot.”
“It wasn’t one of those things that was scripted,” Barnes said. “Nike saw that and was so enamored and excited about what was going on with the HURD that they said they wanted to do something with it. They were so impressed with the support our students gave that they wanted to help.”
With membership now open to all students, membership fees have been done away with, but students are still encouraged to purchase merchandise with the new logo.
Kalian and members of the HURD presidency have worked in conjunction with the athletic department and students sporting the 2012-13 game-day shirts or apparel bearing the new HURD logo at games will be rewarded with free food at tailgates and have a greater chance in being selected for time-out challenges.
A large amount of funding for the HURD comes from merchandise sales, which Kalian said is the reason for added benefits for those wearing the apparel. The HURD – now in its seventh year — uses those funds for purposes such as printing a newsletter.
“The HURD is going to make a newsletter that will be available every game day,” Kalian said. “We’ll be passing it out at games, supplying the blue gloves that you see, just doing more interactive pieces with the students trying to get more people to come.”
Another significant contributor to funding for the HURD comes from university alumni, which HURD leadership hopes to get involved at games.
“Our intent with the HURD is to make it as large and accessible as we can make it. It’s a huge part of the spirit of our athletic program,” Barnes said. “The HURD is a significant part of people coming to campus, it impresses them. The more we can do to grow that the better.”
Other changes for the HURD include new flags and banners for the games, watch parties for away games open to all students, tickets to away games available to all students, new chants and cheers and a bus to away events, which Kalian said will include a small fee for the students who decide to take the bus.
Poster contests, fan-of-the-game contests and other events during games will be held to promote creativity and school spirit. Kalian said students are encouraged to “go all out” to earn prizes at events.
“This all came about from students being crazy, so we’re going to promote students being crazy,” Kalian said. “We’re inviting everyone to come be crazy. With this change, we’re hoping that the atmosphere goes nuts.”
– curtis.lundstrom@aggiemail.usu.edu