Cue the Smoke Machines! Best College Football Entrance Rituals
College football begins in earnest this weekend…and in Ann Arbor, Tuscaloosa, and East Lansing (okay, maybe not East Lansing), fans are gearing up for another season and hoping for a championship. And while we’re all still reeling from the images and stories coming out of Houston and Louisiana, it’s important to keep spirits up—and what better way to do that than by celebrating the country’s best college football entrance rituals?
Any team can just run onto the field. But it takes a special kind of joie de vivre —together with a desire to inspire wealthy alumni to euphoric spasms of check-writing—to run onto the field through smoke and cannons while terrified wild animals dive-bomb you. That’s higher education. That’s America. So, without further ado…
University of Michigan: Touching the M Club banner
Okay, I’m biased. Michigan is my alma mater, so I’m starting here. Sue me. But this one is simple and memorable: the Wolverines run out of the tunnel and onto the field between a column of fellow athletes and band members and all jump to touch the “Go Blue” M Club banner. You can read about my own experience with this tradition in The Best Year Ever.
Ohio State: We can spell!
As a Michigan alum, I’m legally required to hate Ohio State. But this tradition is pretty cool: the Buckeye marching band comes out and with perfect precision forms “Ohio” in script on the field, always with a single Sousaphone player “dotting the i.” It’s some nice showmanship, and who doesn’t like to celebrate the chubby guys who play tuba?
University of Oklahoma: The Sooner Schooner
Large animals make everything better, and OU does it right. The Schooner is a Conestoga wagon that charges out onto the field ahead of the players, pulled by two white horses, Boomer and Sooner. The Sooners overdo this one in my opinion, because the Schooner does the same thing after every Oklahoma touchdown (inevitably reminding me of Cleavon Little’s family in its lone covered wagon in Blazing Saddles), but it’s still memorable.
University of Colorado: Ralphie the Bison
What’s better than horses? Animals that can actually trample you, of course. Buffalo players run onto the field following a squad of (possibly suicidal?) black-hatted cowboys who sprint alongside Ralphie, a bison who probably weighs at least 1,000 pounds and can run up to 30 mph. Did I mention that Ralphie weighs around half a ton? I’ve done that with bulls in Pamplona, and it’s fraught with peril. Well played, Colorado.
Notre Dame: “Play Like a Champion Today”
Former Fighting Irish coach Lou Holtz introduced this simple but charming tradition in the 1980s. As he exits the locker room toward the field, each Notre Dame player slaps a blue and gold sign that reads, “Play Like a Champion Today.” That’s it. No smoke, no animals. Just some advice that we should all heed, every day, even if we’re not wearing shoulder pads and a jock.
Florida State: Chief Osceola and the flaming spear
Entrances don’t get much more badass than at Seminoles games. Say what you want about it being culturally insensitive, but it’s amazing to see Chief Osceola ride an Appaloosa through the perfectly divided marching band holding a flaming spear, while 80,000 fans do the war chant. By the time the players run out, that stadium is on fire.
Arizona State: Pat Tillman Tunnel
I can’t overlook this one. In case you’ve forgotten, Pat Tillman was an NFL player and ASU alum who quit the league to join the Army Rangers in 2002 in response to the 9/11 attacks, and then died in Afghanistan. When the home team runs onto the field at Sun Devil Stadium, they run through Pat Tillman Memorial Tunnel, a fine tribute to a genuine hero.
Auburn University: War Eagle
It’s not just a chant. The War Eagle is a real bird—and a well-trained one at that. Before games, it makes an incredible precision flight over the crowd, sometimes so low that it brushes fans’ hats, before returning to its trainer at midfield. It’s an amazing sight and drives the Auburn fans into a frenzy before the players hit the gridiron.
University of Miami: The smoke
Since the 1950s, the Miami Hurricanes have run onto the field out of a giant football helmet through a massive cloud of smoke to the recorded sounds of a hurricane (something that might have to be suspended for a while after Harvey). Sebastian the Ibis adds a nice touch.
Clemson: The Hill and Howard’s Rock
Maybe the most famous team entrance of all, certainly one of the most revered. Clemson players first gather on a hill above their stadium’s east end zone to rub a piece of Death Valley flint on a black pedestal: Howard’s Rock. Their luck assured, they then run full tilt down The Hill—parting a sea of fans like Moses parting the Red Sea—in what’s been called the “most exciting 25 seconds in sports.” It’s a marvel no one turns an ankle, but it’s the entrance to end all entrances.
