News Release

Dec. 19, 2006

FIESTA FEVER: In anticipation of the upcoming Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, Boise State University’s Office of Communications has identified story ideas that would be of interest to the community. Following is one of these stories. Feel free to use as written, or contact the sources listed at the bottom for more information.

For True Bronco Fans, Getting to the Game Can Be Half the Fun

Within five minutes of the close of the Boise State Broncos’ regular undefeated season, as fans rushed the field in Reno and commentators mused about the football team’s upcoming appearance at the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, alum Kelly Hagans of Boise received four text messages in rapid succession.

All of the messages asked the same question: “How are we getting to Arizona?”

Within 20 minutes, Hagans, a 2001 English secondary education graduate of Boise State, had talked his mother-in-law into letting him borrow her RV for a road trip to Tempe, Ariz. As his friend and fellow Bronco fan Alex Baxter puts it, “It wasn’t a question of if we were going, it was a question of how.”

For the group of fans, students and alumni traveling in this RV — at the moment, seven guys are going down for sure, but the party might balloon to 11 on the way back — a trip to the Fiesta Bowl is the cap to a magical season.

“I knew it was going to be a good season,” Baxter said, “but I didn’t want to say it out loud because it might jinx them.”

With an RV ready to go to Arizona, all the guys had to do was get tickets. Hagans and his friends camped out on a street near the Boise State campus the Friday night before tickets went on sale at the ticket office and played NCAA football video games in the RV.

“We kind of tailgated our way through the night,” Hagans said.

Baxter came along for support even though he had secured his ticket through a season ticket holder. “If someone in my crew doesn’t have tickets, we’re not done yet, you know?” he explained.

Now that their places in the stands are safe, the guys can look forward to spending New Year’s Day in sunny Arizona — even if they have to make the sacrifice of going without their wives or girlfriends. “My wife had no desire to spend three days in an RV with some stinky boys,” Hagans said.

And they’re prepared to take one for the team. Baxter said that he’ll break out his “secret weapons” at the game to help cheer the team on, including a beer can holder helmet outfitted with Tostitos salsa on one end and Tostitos cheese dip on the other. “It could be pretty hard to suck down,” he admits.

Russ O’Leary, a Boise State student and member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity, is traveling in the RV and says that he’s one of about 20 current or past fraternity members making the trip. He’s part of the face-painting, blue-and-orange crowd that has become so familiar to TV viewers and fans.

It’s going to be a great game no matter what the outcome, he says. But as a true Bronco fan he has a prediction: “It’s going to be the Broncos, up by 6.”

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Contact: Kelly Hagans, (208) 869-1667, Alex Baxter, (208) 867-5368, Russ O’Leary, (208) 631-5494
Media contact: Julie Hahn, University Communications, (208) 426-5540, juliehahn@boisestate.edu

We’re proud to be the home of the undefeated, Fiesta Bowl‑bound Broncos, the national champion student speech and debate team, and the nation's 12th‑ranked engineering program among public, comprehensive universities.
 

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Last reviewed on Wednesday, January 03, 2007