Following football around the country: Meet Miami’s No. 1 fan

At the end of the 2010 football season, the Miami University RedHawks were anticipating an early finish to the year. After their last regular season matchup, the RedHawks sat at second in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) East division. The only way for Miami to make the MAC championship was with a Kent State University victory over Ohio University.

The Golden Flashes sat at 4-7, while the Bobcats entered the matchup at 8-3. The odds were low for Kent State to come back for a three-game losing streak to defeat one of the highest ranked conference opponents.

Despite this, Miami fans Michael Hawkins and Michael Soika made the trip to Kent State to cheer on the Golden Flashes. They dressed in Miami red and rooted for a Kent State victory.

If you’ve been to any Miami football game in the last 20 years, you’ve seen Hawkins with his neon signs and his motorcycle helmet. He has gone to every Miami football game, home and away, since 2000.

“I started following the team, going on the road with them that year,” Hawkins said. “As of this past week, I’ve driven 56,303 miles to Miami football, twice around the world.”

Hawkins moved to Oxford when he was six years old. He lived in the same neighborhood as Miami coaching legends Dick Crum and Bo Schembechler. Schembechler, who led the RedHawks to two MAC championships between 1963-68, played backyard football with Hawkins and other kids in the neighborhood.

Hawkins’ father got him into Miami football games while he worked as an usher. From the age of 7 to 18, he attended as many games as he could.

“On days when the weather was bad, he would leave me at home, and I cried all day because I couldn’t go,” Hawkins said. “That’s where the seed took root. It’s literally in my DNA.”

He met Soika, who sold chocolate for the boy scouts, at these games.

Photo by Kethan Babu | The Miami Student
Hawkins standing by his parked car on High Street. Hawkins decorates his car with Miami memorabilia and customized his license plate to read "MU Fan 1"

After graduating from Talawanda High School, Hawkins attended Miami for one year and was a walk-on for the baseball team. In the spring semester, the Yankees pitching instructor invited him to a tryout. After the tryouts, he played in Vero Beach, Florida.

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While playing, Hawkins injured his shoulder, ending his playing career. He returned to Oxford to deliver pizza. Eventually, he joined the Navy and brought Soika with him.

“I’d just drive up in his driveway and rev the engine, and he’d come out,” Hawkins said. “Mike said, ‘Where are we going?’ I’m speeding toward Hamilton. I said, ‘We’re going in the Navy,’ and he said, ‘Oh okay.’”

They served together until 1990. When he returned, Hawkins got a job in FedEx customer service, but his Saturdays were open for college football.

One weekend in 2000, the RedHawks were playing out of town. Hawkins was initially disappointed that he couldn’t see them, but he decided to drive to the game anyway. He donned his motorcycle helmet once again.

Hawkins found the original helmet while doing a paper drive. He painted the helmet to match the Miami colors and wore it to a basketball game. Somewhere throughout the years, Hawkins cracked the helmet out of frustration at a Battle for the Victory Bell matchup against Cincinnati.

He has since replaced the original, but the helmet is a standout feature that makes him easily identifiable in the crowd.

“It started in ’75 or ’76, was when I first started wearing the helmet,” Hawkins said. “My standard line is [the original] met an untimely demise.”

Soika joined him once he left the Navy in 2003. The two have traveled far and wide to support Miami each season since then.

Photo by Jessica Monahan | The Miami Student

Hawkins holding a sign taunting the Ohio University Bobcats on Oct. 19

The pair will be at Yager Stadium for every game, but they are not shy about driving to opposing stadiums. They’ve traveled as far as Texas, Florida and the Bahamas for the team’s bowl games. If Miami is on the field, Hawkins and Soika will be there.

When the RedHawks run out of their tunnel onto the field, they know where to look to find Hawkins. If they can’t find him, they’ll spot the two fans wearing helmets and holding signs.

In his time as a fan, Hawkins has witnessed Miami go through multiple eras of success. He watched Ben Roethlisberger from 2000-03 break every program record. In 2003, the RedHawks had scored over 40 points in nearly every game.

However, even when the program consistently finishes under .500, Hawkins is at the games with his signs.

At each game, Hawkins brings signs and writes his own sayings. These signs range from taunting opponents to predicting the final score. He writes them in the parking lot before the game and updates them while the game is ongoing.

After going to every game in the 2010 season, Hawkins surprised Soika by saying they needed to go to the Ohio vs. Kent State game the day after Thanksgiving.

“I called Mike at work,” Hawkins said. “I said, ‘Mike, we got to go to Kent. Nobody’s going to be rooting for them.’”

They met at 6:30 a.m. and drove three hours to Kent. They packed their helmets and their signs and embraced the 10-degree weather while encouraging the Golden Flashes.

“We walked up behind the Kent bench, and I started screaming at the top of my lungs, ‘Come on blue, let’s go, we need you, I want to go to Detroit damn it,’” Hawkins said. “One player turned around and looked up. He started grinning, he grabbed the guy next to him and said, ‘Look at these Miami guys rooting for us.’”

In the history of college football, no team had ever won 10 or more games the year after losing 10 or more games. The 2010 RedHawks were rebounding from a 1-11 season in 2009.

When the Golden Flashes defeated the Bobcats, the RedHawks earned a spot in the MAC championship against the Northern Illinois University Huskies. That win pushed them to 9-4. In the final game of the season against the Middle Tennessee State University Blue Raiders at the GoDaddy Bowl, the RedHawks earned their 10th win of the season to make college football history.

The credit all goes to Miami, but Hawkins likes to think he played a large role in the team’s historical end to the season.

“We changed the course of NCAA history,” Hawkins said.

@thekethan04

babukc2@miamioh.edu