ORONO – Observations from the University of Maine’s football opener against Montana at Alfond Stadium …

Turning right onto College Avenue, I’ll have to admit to not being prepared for what we met – a line of traffic. Now wait a minute, was Cindy Blodgett back at Alfond Arena nailing 3-pointers?

The last time we sat in traffic heading to a UMaine athletic event, it was in the mid-1990s when a skinny young lady from Clinton used to pack Alfond Arena. This time, however, fans were heading to the other Alfond facility on campus, Alfond Stadium, where the Black Bears play their football games on Morse Field.

In the past several years, despite the success of the UMaine football team, Alfond has not been filled on a consistent basis. It’s impressive to see Alfond Stadium packed with fans, and credit has to be given to new UMaine athletic director Patrick Nero for spearheading a more aggressive plan to put fans in the seats. Nero has made no secret of his goal for sports at UMaine to produce more revenue to help sustain and improve them.

Over the past few months, the Maine football team has been marketed and promoted more than I can ever recall. Granted, for me this only dates back to the early 1980s as a student at UMaine, but the end result for UMaine was a record crowd at Alfond of 9,345.

Bolstering the crowd was the increase in tailgaters as the huge parking lot behind the field house was reserved for them. This crowd featured lots of families who came early, enjoyed some socializing, and then helped fill up Alfond.

The size of the crowd was even more impressive given the fact that only the school’s freshman class was on campus for a weekend of orientation before the bulk of the student body arrived.

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As I stood behind the end zone watching the game, another new fact became consistently clear – this was not a typical UMaine football crowd. Again, despite the success of the team, football fans have been far from the near-fanatical type in evidence at UMaine hockey games. Instead, they kind of sit back, reserving their cheers for big plays or touchdowns.

During this game, the crowd was constantly on its feet, cheering on lots of plays. Now, this may have been due to trying to answer about 800 Montana fans across the field who took up a good portion of the visitors bleachers.

Or it may be from another smart move made by the UMaine administration – giving fans “Thunderstix,” those short air-filled tubes popularized last season during the Anaheim Angels’ championship run to the World Series.

The process of slamming the sticks together seems to incite the fans to cheer louder and longer. Children especially seem to love the sticks and kept busy slamming them, hoping to spark the Bears. The only drawback I could see with the sticks was having to dodge them on the way to the restroom or concession area, as some kids preferred using them for sword fights. Ah, to be young again …

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Now, this is not meant as criticism of the popular Maine mascot, Bananas the Bear, but Montana’s mascot, Monte, was sure fun to watch. While Bananas is limited because of the size and bulk of the costume, Monte has a bear costume that fits like a good old-fashioned union suit. As a result, the person inside the costume showed off some fine athletic skills with displays of tumbles and flips as well as throwing and catching the football.

Bananas is a fine mascot who is great with children, always evoking a smile. However, it was interesting to watch a more interactive mascot like Monte and the crowd’s reaction to the mini-bear’s antics.