The famous 500-yard long concourse leading to the national (association) football stadium in London played host to a sea of raucous American football fans on Saturday, as they gathered to mark the first ever top-tier college football game on British turf. Pundits from Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff Show were broadcasting live from outside the venue – a curious spectacle in which the hosts even ate fish and chips on a temporary set that included a fake Grenadier guard and an old red phone box – as thousands of supporters around them waved placards and chanted college anthems. It fuelled a tailgate party atmosphere that wouldn’t have felt out of place in the States.
Dubbed the Union Jack Classic, the game pitted two sports-mad colleges, Kansas and Arizona State, against each other in front of 46,000 fans, with many of the players one day hoping to play in the NFL. NFL players know they’re already fed, but we’re trying to feed our loved ones. There are scouts watching and people are desperate [to make it].” The only previous college football game to be staged in the UK was in 1988, when Richmond beat Boston University at Crystal Palace.
And while 42 NFL games have been staged in the UK capital over the past 19 years, college football has remained absent. Thomas Hensey, co-founder of the Union Jack Classic, says the idea of bringing college football back to London had been rattling around his head for years, but it grew serious during a conversation at a famous British boozer. That’s a pretty large crowd.
So we asked ourselves: ‘Are we willing to risk everything at our stage in our careers for this?’ And we said: ‘Hell yes, we’re all in!’” Crucially, Kenny Dillingham, the Arizona State coach, was also keen, says Hensey. The razzmatazz began when the players emerged on to the field amid a tunnel of fireworks, before Paige Blake played the US national anthem on an electric guitar. Every break in play was plugged with sound and colour as “spirit squads” including cheerleaders performed slick routines, while marching bands and musicians brought even more energy to proceedings – the latter leaving a footprint that will give the Wembley groundstaff a headache before England’s football match (or should that be soccer match) with Spain next weekend.
The fans – including 15,000 who travellled over from the States – created a partisan dynamic. Arizona supporters made their ‘Forks Up’ hand gesture to mimic the pitchfork on their emblem, while Kansas supporters bellowed their century-old battle-cry, Rock Chalk, which alludes to the chalky limestone that’s found on Mount Oread, where their campus is located. The game itself was less eventful than the pageantry that surrounded it.
Spanning more than three hours and 30 minutes, Arizona State won comfortably, despite the eventual 24-17 scoreline, with Jaren Hamilton running in a 100-yard kick-off return as the game swung decisively in their favour near the midway point. College football players are used to big stadia. All of the teams in the Big 12 conference, to which Kansas and Arizona State belong, average crowds of more than 30,000 per home game, and some, like Brigham Young University, can attract north of 60,000.
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