CSNbbs

I'm not sure if I'm really happy or really sad about this. I both hated (annoying) and loved (loud) these things. I haven't endured a thunderstix game in a long time. Have we been using them often the last few years?

Occa$ionally but much le$$ $o than in previou$ yr$.

I am thrilled to have thunderstix for this game.

(10-05-2010 02:39 PM)HuskiemobileMan Wrote: [ -> ]I am thrilled to have thunderstix for this game.

Hopefully with the 3 games in a row everyone will save the stix and bring them to the next two games. The only negative with thunderstix is probably for the west siders, with the kids hitting themselves over the head with them, there are often those of us hit in the crossfire. Small price to pay for a better gameday environment though. I know many hate them, but with how open and poorly acoustic Huskie Stadium is, you have to have artificial noise.

students love the 'stix!

(10-05-2010 02:39 PM)HuskiemobileMan Wrote: [ -> ]I am thrilled to have thunderstix for this game.

Ditto.

The only thing that drives me nuts is when the Students forget to shut it down when Harnisch comes to the line and is trying to shout out signals/snap count.

I don't generally use them but I don't mind if they're used, it does add to the noise and might help when we're on defense. And I can think of worse things to get hit by.

Pros: They make noise.

Cons: The majority of the students don't know when you use them. DONT BANG THEM WHEN WE'RE ON OFFENSE. Also.. I hate how everyone goes crazy with them but then it's dead silent when the ball is snapped. KEEP MAKING NOISE!

I'd prefer to just get rid of them.. We're born with thunderstix attached to our bodies. They're called hands.

(10-05-2010 05:15 PM)NIUtrav09 Wrote: [ -> ]Pros: They make noise.

Cons: The majority of the students don't know when you use them. DONT BANG THEM WHEN WE'RE ON OFFENSE. Also.. I hate how everyone goes crazy with them but then it's dead silent when the ball is snapped. KEEP MAKING NOISE!

I'd prefer to just get rid of them.. We're born with thunderstix attached to our bodies. They're called hands.

Very true. People don't know when to use them.

The lower row of students, the more knowledgeable ones, usually make an X with their styx when we are calling out our offensive plays as single for the rest of the students to keep their styx quiet.

(10-05-2010 05:15 PM)NIUtrav09 Wrote: [ -> ]We're born with thunderstix attached to our bodies. They're called hands.

Yeah, I thought you were going somewhere else with this comment, but then I realized you weren't Dog Fan.

many of us brought sticks into Memorial Stadium to use them, but made us get rid of 'em... the guy in the section i sat in for the first half said i could get them as long as i didn't bang them together (which defeated the purpose... but had fun using them to make fun of the UofI fans that were by me :D)


it's just not right to NOT have Thunderstix... it's part of NIU football culture :D

Stix, like shaking car keys, were likely invented to circumvent the rules banning mechanical noise makers.

Liking your characterization of stix as part of the game culture at NIU.

I understand both sides of the thunder stix argument. But it is tough to get loud in such an open stadium, the Red/Black chant is one time where you can really hear how loud the fans can be, you get a wall of sound coming at you, but unless the sound is unified like that, it escapes in many different directions.

Not necessarily a fan of them myself, it does make the stadium louder, so I can't complain. The fact is our fanbase isn't rabid enough to make things hard on the opponents right now, and the thunderstix help.

If we start selling out again and have 25K+ of intense fans who are crazy enough to be loud w/o them, maybe we get rid of them, but I have to think the players enjoy it when it's loud in their home stadium and right now this is the best way to make that happen.

I do think when we were at our highest during the Novak era, when it was harder to get good seats, the fans who went knew when and how to use the thunderstix properly. If the people in the front few rows make it obvious to those behind them to be quiet on offense it helps a lot.

Don't understate our ability to make a racket.

There's a link to this 9/17/2005 Daily Chronicle article on the Red and Black Attack site, but I think the Chronicle only gives you a little of the story now. The rest is archived.

NIU's Huskie Stadium has become a tough place to
play


Here are a few pertinent quotes:

"Former Bowling Green State coach Urban Meyer and
current coach Gregg Brandon both called Huskie Stadium one of the loudest venues the Falcons have played in. "We were
intimidated from the get-go," Brandon said of the 2002 contest. "We couldn't hear. We didn't prepare for the crowd noise,
going to DeKalb, because we didn't think it would be noisy. It was noisier than (at) Purdue and Ohio State this year." Sabock
said Huskie Stadium can get even louder than the Big House at Michigan, which reached 110,971 fans in the opener against
Northern Illinois. "That was the first electric-type atmosphere I felt in the stadium," Sabock said of the BGSU contest. "From
that point on, we've had a tremendous crowd. You can't even hear the plays sometimes. It's become an intimidating stadium
and no other stadium of 30,000 is like it. Maybe cause the stadium sits above and the sound funnels down. Without a doubt,
when the stadium is filled and rocking, it's louder than Michigan Stadium."

"The 1965 team
finished with a 9-1 record and lost 37-20 to North Dakota in the Mineral Water Bowl. That team played the first two games in
Huskie Stadium. The stadium, built for $2.2 million, didn't yet have a name and had one side until the East Grandstand was
built in 1995. The original plans were to have a horseshoe design, but the concept fell through."

Horseshoe!!! Wow!!!

FWIW, I like Thunderstix.

So it would be a horseshoe if expanded, interesting. Like others said in the other thread, probably need to do stadium renovations next before any expansion, but at least they had a plan.

And he is correct it about being louder than Michigan when we were going strong. That place was ridiculous, shame those who are in school now, don't know how good it was there for a couple years. Hopefully Kill can get us back to that level.

Let's get some vuvuzuelas.

(10-06-2010 02:14 PM)niuco90 Wrote: [ -> ]Let's get some vuvuzuelas.

Let's not.

its a football not a world futball cup game.

Buy American. Make American noise.