Bleeding Bulls blue

It has been a building year for the True Blue crew, the mass of students who "bleed blue," and gather at home and away games to support UB athletics. A once struggling group, these Bulls fans now stand 50 members strong in a sea of blue and white.

Founders Paul Hutchings, a senior communication major, and Jeseph Meyers, a senior business major, have been die-hard fans of UB athletics since their freshman years. They started the club because they witnessed a general apathy from the student body towards sporting events and school spirit.

"What sets this apart now from just having a game, is the atmosphere," Hutchings said.

Meyer and Hutchings have recently begun tailgating before games in the Alumni Parking Lot, an activity that students hadn't taken up during previous years. They hope to excite UB students who have been missing out.

"Everybody just assumed tailgating wasn't allowed here, but it is," Meyers said. "We want people to know that this can be a real sports school too."

The biggest success for True Blue since the start of this school year has been their acceptance as a genuine club, which means they are allowed funding from the Athletic Department for major expenses like taking groups of students to away games.

"What's great about these trips is that if we can get enough people, we can create a home field advantage for our teams when they're away," Meyers said.

True Blue has done more than just attend games. The club recently organized an event at a women's basketball game called Think Pink to promote both women's sports and breast cancer awareness. Members sold T-shirts for $5, with proceeds going towards the Breast Cancer Network of Western New York. Over a thousand T-shirts were sold.

"We got a lot of positive feedback from that event," Hutchings said "We had our largest attendance at that game."

Hutchings and Meyers have partnered up with the Student Athletic Advisor Committee (SAAC), and have gotten acquainted with the captains of all the teams. At least one captain of every sports team is a True Blue member.

Hutchings and Meyers are very excited about the future and anticipate a large growth in club membership next year. They generally make progress with the massive inflow of freshmen.

"We'll be at the freshmen orientation," Hutchings said "That's huge for us."

Hutchings and Meyer will be graduating after this semester. It may be hard to fill the shoes of these die-hard sports fans. Both founders have been steadily involved in the club from the start.

"We are looking for someone to replace us who is going to put the time and effort into it," Meyers said.

True Blue is bringing school spirit and pride back to UB, according to Joe Alvayero, a senior psychology major.

"If it weren't for them, we'd be completely without spirit," Alvayero said. "They bring more students to the crowd and amp everyone up."

Hutchings and Meyer are calling out the students who have never attended a game, or those who do attend and want to be a part of something bigger.

"We have a students body of close to 20,000 so there's no reason why we can't get more people out at the games," Meyers said. "What we hope for in the future is that the True Blue will be made up of a large portion of the student body."