Hobo Daze: Fans, atmosphere favor South Dakota State

Coughlin-Alumni Stadium is a glorified high school football field that opened three weeks before Johnny Carson started hosting “The Tonight Show” and features jokes that would never make it on the air.

“They always give you a piece of advice on the walk to the field,” YSU coach Eric Wolford said of South Dakota State’s fans.

Such as?

“You don’t want that in the media,” he said.

While North Dakota State and Northern Iowa get their home-field advantage from their noisy domes, SDSU is arguably the hardest place to play in the Missouri Valley.

The fans are part of it, with a rowdy student section that lines up around the end zone, well within shouting distance of the players.

“Last time we were, add the fact that we were getting thumped, and their fans, just some of the things they were saying ... I can’t say some of them, but it was actually really funny,” said senior WR Christian Bryan, whose team fell behind 41-7 in 2012 before eventually losing 41-28. “Not the fact that we were losing, but looking back on some of the things they were saying.

“So hopefully this time we can change our fortune. Hopefully we’re winning so I won’t hear anything from them.”

Saturday’s crowd should be especially large, since SDSU is celebrating its annual “Hobo Day,” which is exactly what it sounds like. Students dress up like hobos and bums, men grow out their beards, fans ride around in a “Bum Mobile” and compete in the “Bum Olympics” and, of course, the guys compete in a beauty pageant dressed as women in hopes of winning “Miss Homelycoming.”

If this sounds weird, well, keep in mind that these are people who willingly choose to live in South Dakota.

But it’s not just the fans. It’s also the field (the only Valley team with grass), the distance (Brookings is more than 1,000 miles from Youngstown), the weather (while Saturday’s forecast is calling for sunny skies and highs in the mid-60s, does anyone want to go to South Dakota in October, much less November?) and, well, one other thing.

The place smells like cow manure.

“I don’t know if it’s the fans and the atmosphere that make it difficult,” Bryan said. “It might be just the trip in general. Playing on a grass field, you’re in a different place that everyone on our team has never been before.

“It’s definitely one of the most different places I’ve ever been in my life. And I think that gets some of the kids a little wide-eyed and your heads not really into it. And they you add in the fact of how the fans are and how tough and physical of a team they area, your head’s not really into it.”

Coughlin-Alumni Stadium may not be a great stadium, but it has a great atmosphere, one that’s in danger of disappearing.

South Dakota State recently started construction on a $60 million, 20,000 seat stadium that is set to open in 2016. It will have turf, loges, improved lighting and, presumably, windows in the press box.

In short, it will be the kind of place where you can bring your mother, instead of just hearing jokes about her. But if SDSU loses its home-field advantage, the Jackrabbits won’t have to wait until “Hobo Day” to be bummed out.

Joe Scalzo covers YSU athletics for The Vindicator. Write to him at scalzo@vindy.com and follow him on Twitter @JoeScalzo1.