ACU students don’t care about ACU sports.

That rumor simply isn’t true.

Although it is true that a majority of the students on campus would rather spend their time participating in student organizations, planning a Bible study or hanging out with friends, there are a few who wouldn’t want to be anywhere other than an ACU volleyball, football, baseball or any other game, screaming their lungs out for the purple and white.

And I’ve seen them.

Whether it is the purple mohawked volleyball fanatic or the springtime hecklers ripping our opponents on the baseball diamond, they are there.

Now I know what you’re thinking. “Here it comes, the yearly sports column chastising the student body for not being more supportive of our sports teams.”

Well you’re wrong.

This is praising the people who have supported our teams no matter the outcome in the end. This is for the fans that know ACU’s single season home-run record holder (Joel Wells) and can remember the last time our football team won a national championship (1977).

It is no secret that our stadiums and gyms have seen bigger crowds in the past, but I would rather have two die-hard fans than 20,000 apathetic bystanders.

The quality of fans, not the quantity, is what will be remembered. Nobody remembers the number of people at a game; everybody remembers the crazy guy on the court acting like a fool for his favorite team. And ACU has its fair share of quality fools that know when to cheer and when to scream at the referees.

Sure, an enormous screaming mob of purple and white college students has its benefits-benefits that were obvious at the football team’s season opener.

The larger-than-usual crowd of students and faculty decked out in Wildcat attire at Shotwell Stadium helped re-amp our worn-out defense during the game’s final moments. The screaming crowd witnessed the last minute sack by outside linebacker Marcus Brown and game-saving fumble recovery by defensive lineman Willis Hogan. And it was beautiful.

ACU sports are going to be here whether the stands are filled or not.

And I’ll be there with my notepad next to the guy with the mohawk.