Denim Millward
Sports Editor
The day was Oct. 18, 2003, and I’d just witnessed one of the most incredible football contests I’d ever seen period, let alone live.
Led by quarterback Mark Hetherington, one of the best ISU running backs of all time, Isaac Mitchell and some defensive lineman from California named Jared Allen, the underdog Idaho State Bengal football team ended a grueling, back-and-forth contest with the Big Sky juggernaut Montana Grizzlies with a thrilling double-overtime exclamation point.
Hetherington found wide receiver Shedrack Okoebor for 12 yards and the game-winning touchdown, further whipping the already-excited crowd into a frenzy.
That exuberance has been sadly absent from Holt Arena ever since.
Yes, there have been a few anomalous games that have produced similar sentiments from the raucous crowd and planted a few seeds of optimism for the future of Idaho State football but those seeds lacked nourishment in the form of sustained success and failed to grow into anything substantial.
As the team struggled for wins, attendance started to dwindle.
Overall attendance and average attendance per game at Idaho State University home football contests has decreased each year since 2011 by an average of 15 percent each year.
While the decrease is significant, it’s likely not very surprising for many onlookers. For most, a quick glance at the Bengals’ record since the glory days of the early 2000s provides a neatly gift-wrapped explanation of the decreasing interest in the team.
It’s difficult to justify the investments of time, emotion and income into a team that has a track record of mustering only a win or two each year, which is understandable.
However, it can also be argued that the lack of team support is one of the largest hindrances to things that are crucial to fielding a successful program, such as recruiting, financial support from boosters and luring high-caliber employees.
There is undoubtedly a chicken-egg relationship between the success of a collegiate football organization and the support the program gets. Determining which element is responsible for the rise and fall of the other is the trick.
This “trick,” many would argue, is a trick question, since both aspects can positively and negatively affect the other depending on the specific situation. However, theories abound on both sides of the argument as it relates to the declining support of the Bengals.
For fans who have lost the desire and/or justification to support the team, the repeated losing seasons of the Bengals in recent memory are indicative of a program that is not in good hands.
Why should I support the Bengals, they might argue, when the current athletic regime has been incapable of restoring the Bengals to Big Sky relevancy?
Their feelings that the investments made in the team would be wasted on yet another failed season so reminiscent of each of the dozen or so before it.
I asked a number of friends, co-workers and acquaintances about their feelings regarding the program and what they would need to see to start regularly attending games once again.
Though the sample size was admittedly small, their answers were nearly identical: I’ll start supporting when they start winning.
However, recent evidence does not bear that out.
After a horrendous 2012 season, the Bengals improved by two wins in 2013 and looked tremendously more competitive in losses than they had the year prior.
Despite the marked improvement in record and competitiveness, average attendance per-game decreased from about 5,900 to about 5,300.
The promise to return to the Holt Arena bleachers upon the team showing improvement went unfulfilled by the vast majority of former fans, it seems.
Regardless of which side of the argument you fall, it seems relatively clear-cut to me that the wins will have to not only significantly increase but will have to stay increased for a few years for a significant uptick in attendance to be seen.
Fair or not, the lack of success on the team has left a significant contingency of former fans with a bad taste in their mouths.
Real change to the team’s culture and mentality as they pertain to winning will need to be seen before fans return in droves and create an atmosphere reminiscent of the one in Holt Arena nine years ago this October.
