What comes to mind when you hear "True Blue?"
Rambunctious fans? The lunatics who harass you to stand up at games? Cowbells?
They know they're loud. They won't try to argue that. But True Blue transcends some of its other stereotypes.
"True Blue says we support athletics, and sometimes I don't agree with that statement because I believe True Blue supports the University at Buffalo," said senior secretary Tyler Bauer.
Bauer, True Blue President Kyle Conte and board member David Daniels are three of the most passionate UB fans you'll find on campus. The trio is part of the committee that runs True Blue. They are responsible for the advertisements, fundraising and everything else that goes into a club; they don't just create clever chants and jump around on game day.
Bauer can be spotted in the first row of nearly any UB sporting event with his puffy blue-and-white wig. The Levittown, N.Y., native came to UB without even a visit. He decided he'd just "wing it" and see how he liked it. At orientation, he fell in love with True Blue and later the entire school.
He posted Facebook pictures with his UB orientation gear. When football season came, he found his way to the middle of the True Blue pack and felt an instant connection.
"When I came here, I felt like I could become a leader of a student section," Bauer said.
He has done just that.
True Blue operates on a $7,500 budget from the Student Association. They've fundraised about $3,300 this season as well. The money goes toward the club's needs, including promotions, advertising and road trips to UB games. True Blue rented a bus and traveled to Ohio State this season for the football team's opening game. The tickets alone cost the club $90 apiece. They bought 56 tickets and raffled them away for $40.
There are approximately 18,500 people on True Blue's email list. The club does a promotional work as well as community service events like blood drives, polar plunges and volunteering as wait staff for Buffalo's "Heart Ball." They advertise both their club and upcoming games over social media constantly. Resident Advisers even turn to True Blue to help improve their events.
"Yeah, we are those people who yell at sporting games, but we are more than that," Bauer said.
Like Bauer, Conte, the current True Blue president, wasn't very involved in extracurricular activities in high school. Freshman orientation got him interested, and he went to a few football games and nearly every basketball game during his freshman year. That's when he realized he wanted to be a club member for four years.
"Knowing I could shape the way of how this was going to continue really kind of inspired me and piqued my interest, and I just felt like I could have done a better job than anybody else," Conte said.
He says the feeling at games is indescribable. The bigger games with the largest crowds are his favorite - the opposing basketball team struggles to concentrate at the foul line; the quarterback can't relay his audibles to his team - these are the moments Conte and True Blue feed off.
"At that moment, it's like you have complete control over the game even though you have nothing to do with it at all," Conte said.
Athletic Director Danny White often tweets praises to @UBTrueBlue, True Blue's Twitter, and stresses the importance of its support of UB Athletics toward overall success. White created the Tailgate Concert Series and gave True Blue a larger tailgate area for students only. Conte said a tailgate is "essential" in drawing a crowd for a football game.
Daniels was introduced to True Blue as a freshman and is now a manager for the men's basketball team as well. He grew up as a huge Texas University fan, but now supports a new pair of horns. His mother jokes how he "was born with burnt orange in his blood and then it turned blue."
Daniels says he sometimes struggles to keep calm on the Buffalo bench as a team manager. When he was in the bleachers the past two seasons, he could scream and yell all he wanted. On the bench, he must act professionally.
The trio sometimes works 40 hours a week toward improving the university, not only its teams. They've been getting results. SA created "True Blue Days," the university uses the True Blue logo in advertisements and Perry's Ice Cream in Buffalo created a flavor called "True to the blue" - consisting of vanilla ice cream, salty caramel swirls and blue pretzel balls - in recognition of the club.
True Blue has only been around for eight years and it continues to expand. They now look for people with skills in video, advertising, marketing, finance, planning and artwork - not just dedicated fanatics.
"If you would have told the people who created this list eight years ago that you would have 18,000 people to send emails to, they probably would have laughed at you," Bauer said.
Now, they've become a major force behind UB's new attendance records.
"Even last year to think about breaking football attendance records was crazy," Conte said. "You would go to games, you'd have maybe 200 people before half then 10 people after the half."
Buffalo's basketball program has one of the most important Saturdays in a long time coming up this weekend.
The women's basketball team is competing for the fourth seed in the Mid-American Conference - which would give it an automatic trip to Cleveland for the MAC Tournament. The men's team is competing for the second seed - which would result in a bye straight to the conference semifinals. Both games are at Alumni Arena.
True Blue will be in chaotic fan mode for both games, starting with the women's noon tipoff.
But when the games are over, they will return to the logistics of getting as many True Blue members to Cleveland for the tournament as possible. This includes arranging transportation, hotel rooms and tickets as cheaply as possible.
If UB basketball makes history this season, Conte, Bauer, Daniels and dozens of other True Blue members will be just a few feet away.
email: sports@ubspectrum.com
Photo: Ryan Hagen | UB Athletics
Photo: Paul Hokanson / UB Athletics
