by Tom Uribes
With
the resounding clank of a sledgehammer bashing metal, President
John D. Welty helped start off Homecoming weekend at a car bash
and pep rally Friday, Sept. 25.
Spirit ran high at events like the Homecoming Parade and Alumni Tailgate, and the weekend was receiving high marks on all sides before it came to a wet conclusion Saturday night - with a disheartening
27-24 loss to the University of Nevada Wolfpack before 39,477 rain-drenched fans in Bulldog Stadium.
The Smittcamp Alumni House ground breaking Saturday afternoon drew about 175 observers and nearly all of Fresno's news media to witness Earl and Muriel Smittcamp turn the first shovel of dirt - aided by Welty, interim Alumni Director Jacqui Glasener, Alumni Association President Charles Small, and the association's chief fund raiser for the project, John Forbes.
Welty thanked the Smittcamp family for "sharing a dream to be the best university in the country." Earl Smittcamp pledged that the $1.9 million two-story structure, which is outlined in yellow paint on the existing asphalt in Parking Lot V, will open on time when construction is completed in a year.
Later on game day, at the Alumni Association's tailgate on Bulldog Diamond, about 600 revelers indulged themselves with good grub, beverages, door prizes, and rousing Alumni Band music.
The arrival of the 1998 Bulldog Marching Band moments before game time brought tailgaters to their feet. Drum cadences ignited the entire Cedar and Barstow area, which flowed with Bulldog pedestrians and motorists making their way to the first home game of the year.
Red
Wavers learned Coach Pat Hill's new "turn up the intensity"
gesture - the thumbs up sign with the forearm waving back and
forth above the head - which Hill hopes will help in crucial moments
of the games.
The stage for juicing up the Bulldog spirit had been set the week before when Bulldog Marketing had paw prints painted along Cedar Avenue, turning into the parking lot and through the stadium gates.
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