New members of the Gorillas "12th man" team

Pittsburg State University’s fans and the Pride of the Plains march band do their best to help the Gorillas beat their opponents on Brandenburg Field in Carnie Smith Stadium.

But the university recently gained another member to its own rowdy version of Texas A&M University’s “12th Man” on defense. For years, the ROTC Gorilla Battalion’s Push-up Platoon did their post-touchdown push-ups in the north end of the end zone and then went back to quietly watching the game. But the battalion’s cadre recently unleashed the Gorilla cadets during the games, and they’ve become one of the most vocal and disrupting forces in the stadium.

Take last Saturday’s game against the University of Central Oklahoma, as the cadets clung to the barricades, howling like crazed, caged apes as they called to cornerback Antonio Jenkins, who was tasked with covering receiver John Brown.

“Antonio! Hey! Antooonnniiiiooooo!” they’d scream. “Yo! Antonio! You can’t cover John Brown! No one covers John Brown!”
Jenkins didn’t respond, but other players have.
“We’ve had players acknowledge us,” said Cadet Maj. Stephen Cuff. “Some of them get mad and trash talk back at us. It’s a blast. When the team gets into the red zone, it really gets crazy. The whole department just goes absolutely nuts.”

It was all in good fun, and the cadets weren’t crass or vulgar. They’re just an extremely loyal and vocal — very vocal — thorn in the opponent’s side throughout the game. And they leave everything they have on the field.
“On Monday mornings for our PT (physical training) sessions the cadets don’t have a voice,” Capt. Drew Polen said. “It’s funny watching them try to lead a formation when they can hardly say anything.”

It all starts the Tuesday before a game, when the cadre — the battalion’s leadership — set the roster for the Push-up Platoon and cannon crew. Then, a night or two before the game, Cuff and cadet Zach Birchmeier look up the opposing team’s roster and do some online research to figure out the key players on both sides of the ball. Then, on Saturday, it’s on. But it wasn’t always that way.

“It used to be a lot more formal,” Polen said. “But a group of cadets asked us if they could break loose and have some fun, and we said ‘Yeah, why not?’ It’s all about school spirit.”

The move also helped improve attendance among the cadets, too, Cuff said. Before, maybe 14 or 15 cadets would sign up.

“We had problems getting kids to come,” he said. “Now we have 40 or 50.”
During the week, the cadets go about their school work with military discipline. Polen said it’s good to let them relax a bit.

“From the cadre perspective it’s just as fun for us to watch them get creative,” Polen said.

Cuff said the PSU players appreciate their efforts, too.
“They’ve saluted us, which is cool,” Cuff said. “We see them on campus and they’re our friends.”

The new, wilder Push-up Platoon is also a useful and fun way to get the freshmen involved, Cuff said.

“We’ve really been pushing that. All their eyes come out wide when they see what it entails,” he said with a grin. “We’re just a bunch of animals out there on game day, and we’re a factor in the game.”