KHOU’s Chita Johnson takes a selfie with fans at the pep rally. Photo by Christian Chavez | The Cougar.
The Suffer’s Kam Franklin performed with the Spirit of Houston during Saturday’s halftime performance. Photo by Christian Chavez | The Cougar.
KHOU11 and iHeart Radio teamed up to host a pep rally in preparation for Saturday’s football game. Students and alumni were there to support the team as well as some of the highest level of staff in the sports department as the No. 24 ranked Houston Cougars face No. 21 Memphis Tigers.
KHOU felt this was the best game to sponsor a Cougar pep rally because both teams being ranked in the top 25 of the College Football Playoff, and they said this game has the potential to truly shake up the rankings.
“I think the turnout is really good.” Chita Johnson, an anchor for KHOU11, said. “For a Friday afternoon, people keep coming in, and the fact that there is so much school spirit. I think a lot of people are excited.”
Even though some students had trouble attending the pep rally, many of the faculty and sports staff were able to join in on the festivities.
Men’s basketball coach Kelvin Sampson came and spoke to the students as well as the UH President of Intercollegiate Athletics Hunter Yurachek. He spoke of how this top 25 game is affecting athletics as a whole.
“We’re going to have 40,000 fans in here – 35,000 of those being purchased tickets,” Yurachek said. “The revenue from that is tremendous but this is the exposure of having ESPN 2 and the live look-ins across our campus. It helps the athletic program, as well the university with the enrollment, the applications and the quality of our applications. This is a great benefit for our football program and our athletic program but this a university deal.”
President Renu Khator attended and talked to fans of how proud she was of the football team and the athletics program overall. She encouraged everyone to show up, be loud and to wear red. Afterwards she shared a message to the students.
“I want them to feel proud of being at the University of Houston,” Khator said. “I want them to feel very happy and proud to be a (Cougar), and I want the students to come out here and feel that they belong here, feel that they are special, feel that they are a part of a winning team and come out and enjoy.”
Yurachek said fans can expect many more of these pep rallies before Houston home games.
“We have an enthusiastic group here and we’ve had people coming and going,” Yurachek said. “It is a tradition we’re going to start on Friday’s before home games and we’re going to keep building it just like we’re building our fan attendance.”
