Team Captains Connor Deitz, Alex Means and Cody Getz enter the field for the coin toss prior to the start of the Colorado State Rams football game at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., Sept. 29, 2012. (Michael Kaplan/U.S. Air Force Academy)
(Tribune News Service) — Part of the pageantry of Air Force football will undergo a major change.
No longer will the full cadet wing be required to attend home football games. The two exceptions will be the opening game on parents’ weekend, which took place this past Saturday, and the Oct. 5 contest vs. Navy.
For other games at Falcon Stadium, a quarter of the cadets, or roughly 1,000, will be required to attend.
“This change is taking place to maximize attendance across all 30 intercollegiate athletic home events,” according to an email from an Air Force spokesman to The Gazette sent on Thursday evening. “This is being done to not only bolster team spirt and unity, but also to embody the values of camaraderie and resilience, which is essential for leadership.”
Air Force will be the lone academy that does not mandate full attendance, as Army and Navy have not changed their policies.
“That’s pretty wild,” a Navy spokesman told The Gazette when informed of Air Force’s break from the tradition.
It was not specified if the decision, heavily rumored for the past few weeks and confirmed Thursday, came from the secretary of the Air Force or the superintendent of the Air Force Academy.
“They’re unbelievable,” said Air Force coach Troy Calhoun, a 1989 graduate of the academy, when asked last week about the cadet wing’s presence at games. “Just the spirit, but more than anything else … there are seven days when there are thousands of visitors to that stadium — graduation and six home football games — where there’s an opportunity to share with the public the academy as a whole. Not just the game, but the parachuters, the march-ons, the fly-bys. Just how awesome that is.
“Especially the march-ons. My goodness, when you see it and you recognize those are our young men and young women who are going to go fight for our freedoms, and they’ve done that voluntarily, it’s unbelievable. And what an opportunity to share that with the community.”
It was not made clear if the march-ons will be impacted, or if the cadets required to attend specific games will enter via march-on.
From a football perspective, Calhoun said there have been many times that plays in the north end zone, near where the cadets are located, that their energy has disrupted timing for the opposing team or led them to commit penalties.
And opposing teams often mention the boisterous cadets as their primary memory of playing at Air Force.
That was the case for Wyoming running back Harrison Waylee last year — and he wasn’t even playing.
“I had so much fun,” said Waylee, who wore his jersey but did not dress out for the game in 2023 that the Falcons won with a late touchdown. “The student section at Air Force, we were kind of going back and forth. That made it fun.
“I remember them saying, ‘No. 4, why you on the sideline? Do you even play football?’ And the cheese being thrown at the back of my neck.”
It remains to be seen if a section of cadets a quarter of its previous size has the same lasting impact.
“Each cadet squadron is required to attend three home games/matches throughout the academic year, as a unit, to support members of their squadron on other intercollegiate teams,” the email from Air Force said. “Additional attendance at all intercollegiate events is highly encouraged.”
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