The Gameday Experience
By Jim Joanos
In the early years of FSU football, it was quite simple. You went to the games if you wanted to see them. There was no television to compete with live attendance. There were cheerleaders and a good marching band playing football and patriotic music and the game. That was it.
Then along came television. At first, it was not that good. However, through the years, television has gotten better. It is so good today that many even prefer watching games at home than going to the stadium. After all, you can get replays and knowledgeable commentary right in your living room. You can invite some neighbors or relatives over to share the game with you. For some attending games in person can be a lot of trouble as well as very expensive.
However, for many of us, we want to be there where it is happening. We want to have it all around us. We want more than just to see the games themselves. Colleges have tried to offer more, in order to increase attendance. The “Game Day Experience,” as it is called, is now a festival instead of just a game. For many, it would be more accurate to call it a “game weekend experience” as attending an FSU game usually involves more than a single day.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
For many the “game day experience” might start as early as Thursday. They come from out-of-town and own condominiums or rent apartments in Tallahassee. On Thursdays and Fridays, they might attend a seminar or a lecture or attend an activity of another sport. They may go to one of the Garnet and Gold stores and buy a hat or a shirt for the game. If they have college age kids, they might bring them for tours of the campus and show them where their parents met. For homecoming games there are parades, banquets, and class reunions. Some weekends there might be fraternity or sorority, team, or department and college reunions. There is College Town with its stores and saloons.
The day of the game begins early. Some folks will meet friends at pancake houses. A huge number will go to the stadium early and prepare for tailgating. They will set up tents and light up grills. Some will even have portable televisions. There will be music. The fields around the stadium will resemble large campgrounds. Langford Green will be filled with merchant booths. The stadium book store will be packed with customers. Some fans will have their photos taken in front of the huge sculpture of a horse and rider bearing the word, “Unconquered” or at the larger-than-life size statute of Coach Bobby Bowden.
As gametime approaches, the size of the crowd increases. Groups of people are eating and drinking. The smell of barbecue is in the air. Cornhole game competition is strong in the parking lots. Lots of folks are at the baseball stadium where the “world renown” FSU band “Marching Chiefs” has a practice concert going on. The sounds permeate the air. Nearby at the “sod cemetery” there are flowers placed upon plaques that represent former victories. A former player is speaking on a microphone, discussing what it is like to play football at FSU. Fans, young and old, are socializing in the streets slowing down the last-minute cars coming in to park.
The band marches to the stadium followed by fans. Thousands of folks are already in the beautiful brick gothic style Doak Campbell Stadium. The teams are warming up. The garnet and gold glitter boys are there. There is a group of bare-chested male students with “Noles” spelled out on their breasts. The players go back into the locker room. There is a short but most enjoyable pregame performance by the Marching Chiefs. Soon the players come back, everyone is cheering. There is a coin toss and then the wonderful “Osceola and Renegade” travel to the middle of the field and plant a burning spear. The fans go wild.
There are several different venues where the fans watch the game. The vast majority are in the open-air seating. It is there where most of the excitement happens. There will be lots of cheering. Tomahawk chops and wave movements will circle the stadium. The band seated in the north end zone plays the war chant often. In the north-east part of the stadium, thousands of students are located.
In a large skybox on the south side of the stadium some serious socializing is going on among those in the Champions Club. Most of the seats in the outdoor part of the section will be empty because most of the club members are indoors, eating, drinking, visiting, and watching the game on a plethora of televisions hanging around the large rooms.
The other sites will be quieter. In a large skybox on the east of the stadium, a couple hundred or so dignitaries, politicians, major donors, and other guests of the university president will be socializing. Many there are serious fans but they will have to escape from the meeting and greeting to seating in front of the skybox so they can concentrate on the game.
In another skybox on the east side of the stadium a hundred or so Golden Chief and above donors are enjoying gourmet food and fellowship in a rather quiet environment. There is a bar there. Scattered about the upper tiers of the stadium are smaller skyboxes full of business and professional folks along with their families and friends.
High on the north side of the stadium is a two-floor skybox inhabited by former FSU athletes called the varsity club box. There is beer, sandwiches, and pizza. During the game the people there are not only watching the play on the field but looking at the replays one of the stadium’s two huge jumbotrons. There is a lot of second-guessing and comments suggesting how the game should be played. But all of it is supportive of the team.
The large press box high on the west side of the stadium is packed with journalists. There are two smaller ones where assistant coaches for each of the teams are watching the game and sending suggestions to the coaches on the field.
The game itself is, of course, still the main course. There are still the cheerleaders and band, as of old. But now, there are also the Golden Girls. There is a beautiful horse with a rider behind the north endzone. During the game the wave will be enjoyed by the fans. There will be the war chant and the chop.
The game will end and if there is a victory, the fans will chant as they leave the stadium. Most will then go home. But some are just beginning. Some will go back to tailgating. Some of the band members will go into the parking lots and play for them. Some will find a café for a late-night snack.
On Sunday, the out-of-town fans will drive home. Before they go, some will attend church services where they attended as students. Others will have breakfast with former schoolmates or Tallahassee relatives.
The “Game Day Experience” at FSU is a good one.
About the author:
 |
Jim Joanos |
Memories of Garnet and Gold
Jim Joanos and his wife Betty Lou have deep roots at Florida State University. Avid sports fans, they have literally seen, and done, it all. Fortunately for us, Jim loves telling first-hand accounts dating back to FSU’s first football game, a 1947 clash with the Stetson Hatters on Centennial Field, where Cascades Park is today.
The Osceola will run a series of these colorful stories written by the former Tallahassee lawyer and judge, which we feel our readers will find enlightening and/or nostalgic.
Jim and Betty Lou, who was Associate Director of the FSU Alumni Association (1991-2003), have been married 65 years and are each listed as one of FSU’s 100 Distinguished Graduates. The couple were enshrined in the FSU Hall of Fame in 2015 as Moore-Stone Award Recipients. Ironically, both Deans Moore and Stone were instrumental in the Joanoses career development.
“Both Jim and Betty Lou Joanos have been exemplary fans and supporters of Florida State University, both academically and athletically,” said Andy Miller, retired President and CEO of Seminole Boosters, Inc. “You can’t go to an athletic event of any kind that you don’t see both Jim and Betty Lou Joanos together. They love their university as much as they love each other.”