By Michael Freeman, Assistant Sports Editor
During the football season, many Abilenians dress themselves in shades of Abilene High gold and black or Cooper blue and red but rarely in ACU purple and white. However, that may soon change.
ACU sports recently joined the ranks of high school football when it comes to local publicity, thanks to last Saturday’s introduction of “The Chris Thomsen Show,” a weekly television program that spotlights ACU football on KRBC-TV.
KRBC-TV, the NBC affiliate for the Abilene-Sweetwater area, teamed with ACU about two weeks ago to produce the half-hour show, which will be hosted by KRBC-TV sports anchor Cayden Mc- Farland. ACU head football coach Chris Thomsen will discuss previous and upcoming games with McFarland on the show.
“It’ll be good,” Thomsen said. “Anytime you can get any kind of exposure , that’s good for recruiting and crowd support.”
The show debuted Saturday and will be broadcast every Saturday at 12:30 p.m. Football will not be the only sport covered. The program will also showcase ACU women’s soccer, volleyball and men’s and women’s cross country during selected weeks, said Jared Mosley, director of athletics.
“We chose to run it on Saturdays at the time we did because most everybody at home is tuned into the three major networks, trying to find a college football game,” Mosley said. “We’re just looking to raise awareness and let people know the good things that are happening.”
KRBC-TV in Abilene and KSAN-TV in San Angelo will carry the show throughout the fall. Next spring, the show will be called the “Wildcat Sports Report” and will be broadcast at 10:30 p.m. the first Sunday of every month from January to June.
“Hopefully, it’ll encourage more community support and involvement,” Mosley said. “We hope that families will consider us an option as far as filling their time on the weekends.”
The purpose of the show is to raise awareness about ACU sports programs, especially the football program and to prepare fans for upcoming games. Also, the show will feature the accomplishments of ACU student- athletes, both on and off the field.
“While it’s going to cover a lot of athletic-related material, our hope is that throughout the semester we’ll be able to highlight some other things that our student-athletes are achieving in the classroom and in the community,” Mosley said.
