The Northern Kentucky University men’s basketball team traveled to Columbus to play Ohio State University on Dec. 1. It was a game where the Norse were a huge underdog, but you would not have known it based on the NKU fans and Norse Force members that were in attendance.

Norse Force and NKU put together a bus trip to Columbus for the game; including game tickets, a bus ride and a free meal for the face value of the tickets.
The trip was offered first to members of Norse Force and then to students that were interested in attending.

Although the turnout for the fan bus trip was not quite as large as expected, and even though the Norse lost 43-70, those that did attend seemed to enjoy the experience.
Garth Whitaker, a junior theater major, was one of many students that applied face and body paint upon arriving at the Value City Arena in an effort to create some excitement.
He explained that the results didn’t matter, but showing pride in NKU did.

“It would have been cool to just walk in and chill and watch the game,” Whitaker said, “But why not? This is our school, why not rep where you’re at?”
Chali Sykes, also a junior theater major, explained that he has friends on the team and saw the trip as a great opportunity to support the program as a whole.
“I wanted to support the team, support my friends,” he said. “That’s my school so I wanted to go out for them.”

Both Whitaker and Sykes expressed interest in attending other student trips to games on the road, but said that they were surprised by the slim turnout for the first one.
Norse Force president Sara Daugherty said that there could be similar trips in the future depending on student interest and is hopeful that the slim number of NKU students on this trip was simply a result of timing and situation.

She noted that the last weeks of the semester makes it difficult for students to commit to events like this, and also mentioned the fact that many fans wanted to travel by themselves.
“It would have been cool if we had more fans and if we would have won,” she said. “But it’s close to finals week and a lot of people went up themselves because they wanted to stay in Columbus.”