NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — Tulane University students have been packing the stadium nearly every week this football season, and now, getting into the student section might just be the hottest ticket in town.
“They had to barricade people out, so there was a whole ordeal of people jumping the barricades to get in because people wanted to see Tulane football,” those are the words of a Tulane sophomore and a self-proclaimed super fan Lorraine Steigner.
“We had to adjust what we were doing from an access perspective. We had to go to a ticketing policy just because demand was there,” said Tulane’s Deputy Director of Athletics Kortne Gosha.
The lights, madness, face paint and even fat heads are at every game. Fat heads are big cardboard cutouts that Eugenie Philipson brings to the games for fans to hold.
It’s a fan base fit for the best, but not even two years ago it was a very different scene at Yulman Stadium.
During the first game last year, there were maybe 20 to 30 at the end of that game,” said Steigner.
“I was a Tulane cheerleader and we were cheering to maybe 200 students if that and it was really depressing. You had all these boys, these athletes, that were in Birmingham, Alabama for a month and they come back and no one is here,” explained Philipson.
Fast forward to now. Over a dozen wins and a Cotton Bowl trophy later there’s been a massive difference in the crowds.
“There used to be this phenomenon where you have a big student section and they all leave after half time. It has been really interesting lately seeing them before halftime and staying after half time because now that’s the event, Tulane football,” said Steigner.
“We average around 3,000 to 4,000 students per game,” said Gosha.
That’s about 20 times more students than two years ago.
“There was an older gentleman sitting behind me. He said I have not seen a stadium look like this, particularly the student section, since the old stadium. Hearing that that was like a yes moment. Yes we are doing it, we are here and we need to keep it going,” said Philipson.
“Something really special was happening with the program and then of course the more we kept winning the more hype there was and more students wanted to come,” said Steigner.
Electrifying and intoxicating, Tulane students are now waiting sometimes hours to get in to the games and cheer on the Green Wave.
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