TUCSON, Ariz. — Miami University’s football team traveled the 1,778-mile road to victory on Dec. 28. In a 43-17 finish, Miami won the Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl game in Tucson over the Colorado State University Rams.
It wasn’t just neighboring state Colorado fans lining the stadium, though. Miami students, alumni, family members and Snoop Dogg lovers showed up to support the winning team at the final game of the season.
The game, sponsored by Snoop Dogg’s Gin and Juice, was the first time a college football game was sponsored by an alcohol brand, and they went all out with it. Snoop Dogg flipped the coin at the beginning of the game, was an announcer during the third and fourth quarter and rode into the stadium in a light blue low-rider to present the MVP trophy to running back Kevin Davis.
Even though the game gained much press coverage due to Snoop Dogg’s attendance, one such attendee came not because of the musician, but because of his love for the game.
Michael Hawkins has attended almost every Miami game, save for roughly 20, since 2000. For even longer than that though, he’s gone to games wearing his red and white Miami helmet while carrying 12 to 20 handmade signs. The Wilmington, Ohio resident said he doesn’t do it for attention; This was just how he’s grown up.
“My first memories as a kid, when I was seven in 1965, were going to Miami football games, and all the coaches were my neighbors,” Hawkins said. “It’s all but literally in my DNA.”
And this game was no exception. Hawkins made the hours-long flight to Tucson and sat with his signs and snacks to watch the big game, even making it onto the jumbotron a few times.
Unlike Hawkins, siblings Grace and Faith Cooper have not been to every game. Instead, roommates Grace, a Miami alumna and current probation officer and Faith, a first-year at the University of Arizona, said they have been waiting years for Miami to come to the Arizona bowl game.
“We knew as soon as they lost the MAC championship, they would come to this game, and so we couldn’t wait,” Grace Cooper said. “We’d love to see everybody that we know: President [Gregory] Crawford, the team, everybody, you know. We wouldn’t miss it.”
Faith Cooper added that it’s the “coolest crossover episode of all time” because “it’s Grace’s school and my school and Snoop Dogg all in one place, and it’s just the craziest thing.”
“I think that having a really big Miami presence here, you know, if it's just parents and fans and just a little bit of alumni, you know, coming all the way out here to Tucson, I think it builds the energy,” Grace Cooper said.
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During the press conference after the game, Miami head coach Chuck Martin said Miami always travels with this level of support and commented on how Tucson rallied behind the bowl game to fill the seats.
“You watch other bowl games and they try to hide it, but at some point the camera hits and there’s just rows and rows of empty seats,” Martin said. “So what they do in this town, the pride they take in this shows with every turn they make, like everything is just done a little bit better.”
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