The Herd came rumbling onto campus last year and now Robb Engen wants to start a stampede.

Engen, the manager of business development for Sport and Recreation Services, introduced The Herd last fall, a student booster club that included a season ticket pass as part of its membership. It proved to be very popular, especially amongst first-year students. With that concept in mind, Pronghorn Athletics is taking the Herd to the streets with the introduction of the 2011-2012 All Sport Pass, a $100 season ticket that grants Horns fans access to every regular season and playoff game for every Pronghorn varsity sport.

"When we introduced the Herd, which is basically a season's pass for students, the response was really good," says Engen. "We wanted to extend that to the community and to our existing season ticket holders with the idea of making it easy to get into any game with one card at one price point."

The Horns had been offering single sport season tickets for years but after researching other athletic programs, both in Canada and the United States, and with the success of the Herd already established, a new path was chosen.

"We've already got people who are coming to multiple games in multiple sports anyway, and this pass will likely save them money," says Engen. "At the same time, we see it as an opportunity to increase our base support for Horns Athletics and maybe encourage some of our fans who only go to one sport to check out something else."

The All Sport Pass is available for $100 and has been introduced at various University events over the summer, as well as to season ticket holders and supporters of Horns Athletics. A larger season ticket push will come this fall.

Giving Horns supporters an opportunity to showcase their Pronghorn Pride is an end goal for Engen and many of the department's recent initiatives, are aimed at doing just that. The Herd, CanadaWest.TV, a new Horns Athletics website and the All Sport Pass are all a part of getting fans to step out of the shadows, puff out their chests and proclaiming themselves as proud to be Pronghorns.

"We have a really good tradition in the community but maybe we haven't celebrated ourselves to the level we should," says Engen. "To that end we have restructured the office here and really put more of a focus on bringing Horns Athletics up to the elite level we believe it should be."

Students snapped up Herd passes last year to the tune of 250 members, many of which were in their first year. For $30 they get into every Horns game, a Herd t-shirt and a variety of promotional items. Engen looks to grow the club exponentially, which is essential to maintaining a solid base of support for Horns Athletics.

"What we want to do is create a foundation of strong and consistent student support, so that we don't have to rely on an undefeated season or something special to pack our stands. If we have that base support, regardless of how we're doing in the standings, then we can really ride that wave when one of the teams goes on a big run," he says.

If the program can retain its 250 subscribers from last year and add a similar number this fall with an influx of more new students, the Herd will virtually double in size.

"One thing we want to do a better job of is promoting the Herd throughout the year," says Engen, who will introduce Herdfest, an outdoor tailgate party in the middle of October. "It's finding a way to keep momentum going throughout the year and to keep them excited."

Pronghorn Pride is alive and well and if Engen gets his wish, there will be more fans than ever showing their support at Horns games all season long.

This story first appeared in the September issue of the Legend. To view the Legend in a flipbook format, follow this link.