For those who attended MTSU....

[Matt Dossett]

What year did you graduate and where on campus did you stay?

I graduated in 2016 with a degree in Mass Comm/Journalism ...I stayed in Rutledge, and Monohan while commuting part of the time..

What was the landscape of MT athletics while you were a student?

I believe it was my freshman year when MTSU shellacked Georgia Tech. The basketball team was rolling as well.

 

[MidTennMtneer]

I was there fall of '98 - spring '02. Was in Cummings, Gracy, Judd, then lived off campus senior year.

Showed up right when BAS and Walker Library were new. Remember the "1-A All the Way" shirts everyone had for the jump. Still have the souvenir little plastic football from the 1-A Day in '99.

I remember the major buzz. Jump up, upgraded stadium, etc. Also very clearly remember freshman year noticing how dead the campus was on weekends. I missed dinner many times because the cafeterias had extremely shortened hours. Being 6hrs from home, going home often wasn't an option.

Even with the buzz, weekday games were by far the most attended. Sadly I didn't attend many bball games. Wish I had. By the time I was really in the Murph for a bball class my senior year and I realized what I missed, it was too late.

Football wise, the Idaho game in '01 is probably the one I remember most winning 70-58.

 

[MTLynn]

BBA Finance 1995. Murfreesboro native and I lived at home. I believe the athletic dept was strong across the board until basketball probation in 1991.

 

[RaiderDoug]

2003 - 2005 BA in Finance, minor in Insurance. Lived in Smith for about half a semester then moved off campus to a series of shitty apartments.

I remember being excited about MT Football, and then in 2003 we started out like 0-5 or something like that including a pooping on the field vs FAU in the first game. I do remember some decent excitement about MT football, but we couldn't get over the North Texas hump. Then Troy was the nemesis.

I lived in Rutherford county until 2010 (moved to East TN) and tried to make as many of the football games as I could, and I remember quite a bit of excitement around Stockstill's first few years.

 

[ewglenn]

2020-Present (graduate next spring thank God)

Masters in Management (Organizational Leadership)

I live and work in the Boro. Athletics has seemed stuck in neutral since I’ve been around. My best memory, so far, was watching Marshall come to town and it pouring rain. We setup shop in the beer garden and there were like 3 other people down there. We drank a little too much but had a blast.

 

[JohnDavidBlue]

2001 (started 95) - Shardt Hall; lived off campus most of my time. B.B.A. CIS

Baseball was 🔥. Basketball wasn’t.

Football was king. Amazing 2001 season. Very hopeful time. During my time as a student. New stadiums. New logo. New division. New library. New BAS. I saw digital underground in 99 at Murphy center on a whim. I worked at Kroger at South Tennessee way too often.

…I need to go take my centrum silver…

 

[MTFAN61]

I'll be taking us back in time a bit. Got a BA in Business Ad with a minor in Insurance from 1980-1984. Lived in Murfreesboro 5 minutes from campus. Saw some amazing times in football & basketball. Boots took over a disaster in 1980, but by '84 we were in 1-AA quarter finals. Lost to LA Tech, but week before that an amazing triple OT winner against Indiana St.
Saw Stan Simpson lead MT to its 1st NCAA tournament win against Kentucky in Nashville in 1982 50-44. Jerry Beck was one of our all time great forwards & Pancakes Perry our point guard.

 

[MidTennMtneer]

2001 (started 95) - Shardt Hall; lived off campus most of my time. B.B.A. CIS

Baseball was 🔥. Basketball wasn’t.

Football was king. Amazing 2001 season. Very hopeful time. During my time as a student. New stadiums. New logo. New division. New library. New BAS. I saw digital underground in 99 at Murphy center on a whim. I worked at Kroger at South Tennessee way too often.

…I need to go take my centrum silver…

All of this absolutely makes one feel old. I had bloodwork for a new life insurance policy this week. Cholesterol is now and issue. Old is right.

Amazing how we all see things through a different lens even being there roughly the same time. I never once set foot near the baseball field. I'm a country fan and spent wayyy too much time in Nashville concert venues. Never once saw anyone anywhere in the 'Boro.

Was a grocery guy too (and still am just on support side thank God...customers are just stupid nowadays). Worked at Jr's Foodland way too much as well. Was an Asst Mgr by the time I graduated in '02 and left to go in to Walgreen's mgmt program.

 

[Noogaraider1]

05-09. We had a whole mess of friends living in College Grove and it was an absolute blast constantly.

Some good days in FB. We would dominate Memphis regularly and I specifically remember a Blackout Game against them where finding seats was kind of a task. Whole upper deck was mostly full. The Grove was always packed and tailgating was lively. Seemed to be more energy in general. Im hopeful if/when winning return we can get back there.

Right before the good times in Bball.

 

[tyler90wm]

I was a student 08-12 which was, in my opinion, the highest points of our football athletics from winning the New Orleans Bowl in 2009 to the C-USA announcement in 2012! Men's basketball was average until my last year at school, the 11-12 season where we went 27-7 and made a good run in the NIT beating UT in Knoxville and getting 10K+ for the game against Minnesota. Women's basketball was pretty much the same as it is now; I did get the privilege of watching Alysha Clark dominate. Baseball was decent, but had 40+ wins in 09.

 

[MTFAN61]

I was a student 08-12 which was, in my opinion, the highest points of our football athletics from winning the New Orleans Bowl in 2009 to the C-USA announcement in 2012! Men's basketball was average until my last year at school, the 11-12 season where we went 27-7 and made a good run in the NIT beating UT in Knoxville and getting 10K+ for the game against Minnesota. Women's basketball was pretty much the same as it is now; I did get the privilege of watching Alysha Clark dominate. Baseball was decent, but had 40+ wins in 09.

That was Kermit's team that turned everything around for the next 6-7 years. It all started with a new team led by L Dendy beating UCLA by 20 in LA. What a game! That night I stayed up reading all of the UCLA message board reactions. Pretty awesome, for us anyway. Not so much for the Bruins fans though.

 

[coachchia]

I went to Middle in the late 1970's, early 1980's... I lived in I Dorm (Jock Dorm) Jerry Beck and Chris Harris lived next door in our Quad. Jimmy Shrader, Mike Frost, Mark Lynn, John Sauer and Clint Dennison were also Quad mates...

I was there for the last years of Hurt and the 1st Spring of the Boots Era. The 1st Boots Spring ended with 17 only left on scholarship....

There were also several I Dorm Events that rank up there with outrageousness....

 

[Noogaraider1]

That was Kermit's team that turned everything around for the next 6-7 years. It all started with a new team led by L Dendy beating UCLA by 20 in LA. What a game! That night I stayed up reading all of the UCLA message board reactions. Pretty awesome, for us anyway. Not so much for the Bruins fans though.

Yea it was that UCLA game that really changed the next 4-5 years for MT bball. I did the same thing and reveled in their agony. We used to own Ole Miss. Yall remember Marshall Henderson? I think it was Shawn Jones shut him down at our house.

 

[MTFAN61]

I went to Middle in the late 1970's, early 1980's... I lived in I Dorm (Jock Dorm) Jerry Beck and Chris Harris lived next door in our Quad. Jimmy Shrader, Mike Frost, Mark Lynn, John Sauer and Clint Dennison were also Quad mates...

I was there for the last years of Hurt and the 1st Spring of the Boots Era. The 1st Boots Spring ended with 17 only left on scholarship....

There were also several I Dorm Events that rank up there with outrageousness....

I remember Chris Harris as a young freshman playing against Jerry Tarkanian's UNLV Running Rebels in Vegas. Everyone expected a blowout. Harris took it to them, had 5 dunks, 15-16 points & couldn't be stopped on the boards. Even our own play by play man was like "who is this guy?!?". Rebels won 95-83, but we knew we had the makings of a team.

 

[FranklinRaider315]

May, 2005 MBA
Commuter grad student. Matriculated August, 2003 the following Monday after getting my BBA diploma from Belmont.

I guess that was nearing the end of the Andy Mac Slappy era. I spent most of the free time after my day job working on grad studies. Little time for Blue Raider Athletics until Coach Roy Mewbourne drafted me into the BRAA after graduation.

 

[arg3b]

2004-2008, stayed at campus crossings next to greek row

 

[sWiley]

2004 - 2008 @ MT

2014 - 2016 @ APSU (Online program to complete Masters)

I lived on campus in a dorm for a year (can't remember the name), and Campus Crossings for a year as well. Remainder of time I lived with family. Jonathan Hutton was my dorm roommate and big brother in ATO. He used to own and run this site and I helped him work the back end with recruiting. My first MT football game was the 2004 FAU game, where they won on the last play of the game for their first win in Division 1 history. How fitting, huh ? I did end up making friends with a handful of players during my time at MT after that 2004 season. Clint Marks, Dennis Burke, Chance Dunleavy...all great guys. We had many good times together. Also Jay Robinson, Roy Polite, Damon Nickson, Walt Bell, Luke Paschall, Cleanard Saintil, Colby Smith....All kinds of different guys from different backgrounds but came together and had a lot of fun times.

I'll never forget the build-up to the 2005 season, Clint was being talked about on the radio in the same breath as Vanderbilt's darling, Jay Cutler. I recall even some radio hosts saying they would take Clint over Jay at that time. Clint was coming off an impressive sophomore season with huge expectations for his junior and senior seasons. There was a lot of hope and optimism going into that 2005 season for the team as a whole. I remember opening @ Alabama and playing them tough. Outside of some unfortunate turnovers that game was much closer than the score indicated. Everyone thought for sure we would come home and FINALLY take care of North Texas. But a super flukey game, including 5 turnovers to their 0, helped North Texas somehow win 14-7. We came back a 6 point favorite at home the following week against Akron in week 3 and managed to clinch another L, a for sure hangover game after the disappointing give away game to North Texas the previous week. We could have very easily been 2-1 after the Akron game but murphy's law was in full effect, dropping us to 0-3.

Week 4, we rolled into Nashville a 17 point underdog without a win to our name, facing an undefeated Vanderbilt squad (4-0) at the time who was rolling. Ya'll know the rest. We block the kick to win, and Vanderbilt only wins 1 game for the rest of the season to finish with 5 wins, 1 short of a bowl game! Clint outduels the snobby Jay Cutler, who we saw out on the town in a bar off demonbreun at some point that season (can't remember if before or after that game) and he pretended like he didn't know who Clint was. He knew, and his pretentious ass team got beat by a winless MT squad that had bad coaches.

 

[arg3b]

2004 - 2008 @ MT

2014 - 2016 @ APSU (Online program to complete Masters)

I lived on campus in a dorm for a year (can't remember the name), and Campus Crossings for a year as well. Remainder of time I lived with family. Jonathan Hutton was my dorm roommate and big brother in ATO. He used to own and run this site and I helped him work the back end with recruiting. My first MT football game was the 2004 FAU game, where they won on the last play of the game for their first win in Division 1 history. How fitting, huh ? I did end up making friends with a handful of players during my time at MT after that 2004 season. Clint Marks, Dennis Burke, Chance Dunleavy...all great guys. We had many good times together. Also Jay Robinson, Roy Polite, Damon Nickson, Walt Bell, Luke Paschall, Cleanard Saintil, Colby Smith....All kinds of different guys from different backgrounds but came together and had a lot of fun times.

I'll never forget the build-up to the 2005 season, Clint was being talked about on the radio in the same breath as Vanderbilt's darling, Jay Cutler. I recall even some radio hosts saying they would take Clint over Jay at that time. Clint was coming off an impressive sophomore season with huge expectations for his junior and senior seasons. There was a lot of hope and optimism going into that 2005 season for the team as a whole. I remember opening @ Alabama and playing them tough. Outside of some unfortunate turnovers that game was much closer than the score indicated. Everyone thought for sure we would come home and FINALLY take care of North Texas. But a super flukey game, including 5 turnovers to their 0, helped North Texas somehow win 14-7. We came back a 6 point favorite at home the following week against Akron in week 3 and managed to clinch another L, a for sure hangover game after the disappointing give away game to North Texas the previous week. We could have very easily been 2-1 after the Akron game but murphy's law was in full effect, dropping us to 0-3.

Week 4, we rolled into Nashville a 17 point underdog without a win to our name, facing an undefeated Vanderbilt squad (4-0) at the time who was rolling. Ya'll know the rest. We block the kick to win, and Vanderbilt only wins 1 game for the rest of the season to finish with 5 wins, 1 short of a bowl game! Clint outduels the snobby Jay Cutler, who we saw out on the town in a bar off demonbreun at some point that season (can't remember if before or after that game) and he pretended like he didn't know who Clint was. He knew, and his pretentious ass team got beat by a winless MT squad that had bad coaches.

I remember when you had that Andy Mac doll on your patio at campus crossings 😂😂

 

[sWiley]

I remember when you had that Andy Mac doll on your patio at campus crossings 😂😂

That was us.

Andy Mac actually alluded to Burke one day in practice that he should kick my ass. He somehow knew we were friends.

I used to go to many practices, and as things went down hill in the 05 season, Bruno (bless his heart) came over and suggested to me one day that it's "dangerous" for me to be there. He didn't want to elaborate, but he basically said I needed to leave "for my own good." I told him they were all going to get fired soon and left. Believe it was the week before we played ULM. They were all fired not long after.

 

[DoubleRRaider]

2016-2021, I never stayed on campus -- I roomed with my best friends off campus not too far away though (walking distance).

Majored in Leisure, Sport and Tourism Studies -- they've now changed the name to Sport Management.

Landscape? Lol, don't get me started. Came in on the tail end of the basketball run and the Mizzou win. WKU ruined my first ever homecoming so i reallllly hate 'em.

 

[JohnDavidBlue]

Nottingham apartments was shady back in the day. Attended some parties there.

Is that place still living up to its name?

 

[SigmaNuBlue]

Started in 2000. Corlew for first semester, then moved in to the Sigma Nu house on Greek Row.

Business Admin with emphasis in Accounting.

The games at Vandy were electric. Can still see Freddie Roach picking off Andrico Hines for a pick 6. Calico was inbounds in Knoxville...

 

[MTCasey]

2004-2008 undergrad- Mass Comm (Journalism). Wrote for Sidelines my first two years and was Sports Editor for a semester. Worked in Media Relations my last two years. Lived in Felder (RIP) my freshman year, Scarlett my sophomore year, and off campus the last two years.

Probably crossed paths with a few of you. I frequently got confused with former GoMiddle chief Casey Bowman (the other Casey lol). Same class, similar names, both big MT fans, he was ATO and I was Sigma Pi.

Started working at MT in 2011, finished my Master's in Higher Ed in 2015, hopefully finishing my doctorate a year from now (starting dissertation as we speak).

2004-2006 were pretty bland across the board athletics-wise with the exception of WBB, winning back to back tourney games in Stephany Smith's last year and CRI's first. Floyd was pretty empty in Andy Mac's last two years (though not as empty as recently). Stock's first season was exciting. Non-revenue sports were always really good- VB had a Sweet 16 run, Marco and Andreas won the NCAA doubles title, Aston's bunch was solid. Felt like the momentum and energy really picked up in that 2008-2012 span, when it felt like we might be the next ascendant program.

That didn't happen.

 

[RaiderDeez]

Started Fall '97. Stayed 1 year on campus in Judd Hall. Afterwards, lived at Chelsea Place for 3 years, then a year at a small complex on Graduate Ln near Center Point, then I was living in a townhouse in Indian Park when I graduated.

Two degrees: Bachelor of University Studies, Dec 2002, and B.B.A. in Accounting, Aug 2014.

The landscape from back then was interesting. Those were basically the last days of Boots and Randy Weil. Got to see the end of the 1AA era and transition to 1A/FBS. I was and have always been more of a fan/follower of the football program and somewhat WBB than MBB. Dwone Hicks and Kerry Wright were beasts, though neither translated to the next level. Got to see many great WBB stars: Patrice Holmes, Chrissy Givens, Alysha Clark, Amber Holt.

I've seen many FB road games up through 2009-ish, with a few Vandy and WKU away games since. Went to the OVC BB tournaments when they were in Nashville. SBC tournaments in Murfreesboro, Bowling Green, Lafayette, and Mobile. WBB NCAA tournament games in Durham, NC, and South Bend, IN.

Before last season ('22), I had only missed maybe 2 home FB games since the '97 season including the 2020 covid season. Finally had enough last season after the UTSA game coming off the win at Miami, and skipped the rest of the season.

I'll likely start out next season coming to games, but if we're not at least 3-3 by the midpoint, I'll probably bail again. I'm betting we for sure lose to Alabama, Missouri, WKU and Liberty, and the only "sure" win being to Murray. Every other game will be a crapshoot, and we'll probably end up 7-5 again, going to either the Bahamas or Hawaii again. And we'll all feel exactly like we do right now, all over again.

 

[crposton]

2011-13 majored in Economics. I attended after I got out of the Navy and was married, so lived off campus. Athletics were pretty good back then as that was the start of the rise of the basketball program and football had Kevin Byard and Benny Cunningham. Also the move to CUSA was exciting at the time. If I had lived on campus I would’ve paid more attention to baseball, but never attended a game until after I graduated.

 

[Matt Dossett]

Good discussion

 

[Matt Dossett]

Yea it was that UCLA game that really changed the next 4-5 years for MT bball. I did the same thing and reveled in their agony. We used to own Ole Miss. Yall remember Marshall Henderson? I think it was Shawn Jones shut him down at our house.

I think the hoops fanbase is STARVING to get back the brand of ball from the Kermit days...

 

[Matt Dossett]

I was a student 08-12 which was, in my opinion, the highest points of our football athletics from winning the New Orleans Bowl in 2009 to the C-USA announcement in 2012! Men's basketball was average until my last year at school, the 11-12 season where we went 27-7 and made a good run in the NIT beating UT in Knoxville and getting 10K+ for the game against Minnesota. Women's basketball was pretty much the same as it is now; I did get the privilege of watching Alysha Clark dominate. Baseball was decent, but had 40+ wins in 09.

I was in the glass house for the Minnesota game. It was electric

 

[ewglenn]

I’m curious if we have anyone on here that did not attend and why they are a fan now.

 

[BlueAlpha]

I’m curious if we have anyone on here that did not attend and why they are a fan now.

I was going to start a separate thread as I didn’t want to hijack this one. I think it could be an interesting case study since historically, the results on the field have been somewhat inconsistent.

 

[mtfblue]

I’m curious if we have anyone on here that did not attend and why they are a fan now.

I didn't attend, been a fan since I was knee high. I'm one of the kids that use to play in the endzone area of the old stadium. I was recruited by MT class of 91, but I needed to be out of the Boro when I attended college and went and played at AAMU under the current assistant track coach Ray Bonner husband of retired VP Gloria Bonner.

 

[MTsumner92]

Class of 92. BBA Marketing. Lived at Rosewood apartments and the Kappa Sigma house lol. Best memory was upsetting Georgia Southern and tearing the goalposts down. Those posts are still hanging in the Boro.

 

[Hop45]

I was in the glass house for the Minnesota game. It was electric

Best basketball atmosphere I have ever physically been in was that night! It was crazy!!

 

[AustinLewis]

At MT from 2007-2008. I took Athletic Administration with Stephanie Diaz (Manny D's wife). Dwight Dasher, Ted Riley, and a handful of other football players were in the class (maybe a baseball player too, but I don't remember). Chris Massaro came one class and spoke about the challenges MT was facing with realignment. Very candid conversation.

I was dating a girl who attended the school "up north" so I transferred to be closer to her. While the transfer opened some really incredible doors & I ended up marrying the girl, I regret not staying at MT. Would LOVE to go back and get a degree from MT.

 

[SigmaNuBlue]

Best basketball atmosphere I have ever physically been in was that night! It was crazy!!

The Minnesota game was fun for sure. It was wild the last time UT came to MC, but there was a lot of urnge in there. But man, without question, the loudest and most electric atmosphere was the WKU home game when we were ranked, Giddy's senior year. I had never seen the student body that engaged in a game. And we absolutely wiped with floor with Western. That was the pinnacle. It all ended 8 days later.

 

[RaiderDeez]

The Minnesota game was fun for sure. It was wild the last time UT came to MC, but there was a lot of urnge in there. But man, without question, the loudest and most electric atmosphere was the WKU home game when we were ranked, Giddy's senior year. I had never seen the student body that engaged in a game. And we absolutely wiped with floor with Western. That was the pinnacle. It all ended 8 days later.

I was at that game, too, against WKU. And I was thinking back, the only game that matched it in terms of electricity and engagement, was Operation Full House, also against WKU, in early 2004. Those were two fun games to witness in person.

 

[MidTennMtneer]

Just goes to show how rivals and rankings matter. Even being ranked 24/25 brings people in. Both basketball and football.

And rivals, heck. Coaches have been put under fire and canned for not beating their rival. Cough Michigan/Ohio St. I wish a certain someone didn't treat WKU as "just another game".

 

[ewglenn]

WKU is not just another game idc what they say. Same with Memphis when we play them coming up. Those are massively important to the fans and athletes.

 

[FranklinRaider315]

I was in the glass house for the Minnesota game. It was electric.

So was I. Sat about 8 rows behind our bench. Andre Hollins from Memphis White Station HS ate us up in the final minutes.

 

[blueraiderJT]

I went to MT from 93-97 and graduated with a BFA in Fine Arts with an emphasis in Graphic Design.