By Caden Fabbi

It’s that time of the year, folks! Unless you have been living in the depths of the quiet floor of the Knowledge Center for the past few weeks, you likely know that Homecoming is upon us.

In the pinnacle of tradition on our campus, this exciting and hectic week-and-a-half full of events and activities for all students culminates in the one reason why we celebrate Homecoming in the first place: gameday.

This year, the Wolf Pack will be taking on the Broncos from Boise State. The Broncos are a good team, so we need our fans to be on their A-game to make Mackay Stadium a hostile environment for our visitors to play in. Here are some tips to make your gameday experience the best one possible:

Be early, be proud

Homecoming is a night game this year, so you have no excuse miss the Blue Crew Tailgate in the student tailgate zone starting at 4:30 p.m. It’s a great time — music, food and swag all for free. At the very least, stop by to pick up your free Qdoba and rally towel before they’re gone.

At 5 p.m., the players, cheerleaders and band will be doing the Wolf Pack Walk through the tailgate zone and into Mackay Stadium. Come wish our team luck leading in to one of the most important games on our schedule this season.

Don’t be dumb

Big games mean extra security. You don’t want to be the kid who gets handcuffed on Homecoming, so keep it together and be aware of your surroundings. You aren’t the only person who is affected by your gameday behavior, so don’t ruin another fan’s experience because you made some bad decisions. You’ll want to celebrate our huge Homecoming victory after the game anyway.

P.S. Wear blue, not orange. If you wear any type or variation of orange in our student section, it’s unlikely to end well (J.C. in particular would not be fond of such a sin during the game).

Appreciate Alumni

Just as birds fly south for the winter, alumni return in flocks to our campus for Homecoming weekend. Some of my favorite Homecoming memories have come from meeting and talking with Nevada alumni. About half of them will promise you a job after you finish your degree, but even better, the stories from their own college experience will entertain you for hours. Take advantage of the best opportunity of the year to network with our university’s graduates.

Be a good fan

There are a few important student section rituals that every dedicated Wolf Pack fan knows. Don’t forget: as the team is getting ready for kickoff, the entire student section should be jumping and screaming “BATTLE READYYYYYYYYYYY!” When the kicker makes contact, yell “BOOM” and then yell “BATTLE BORN!”

“Jump Around” is played every game between the third and fourth quarters, so make sure you’re following the directions as outlined in the song. It’ll ask you to do something like, “jump around.”

One of the most embarrassing fan-fails that can happen at a game like Homecoming is saying “watermelon” over and over to pretend like you know the words to the fight song or awkwardly humming along to the melody. We’ll be singing it a lot at this game because we’ll (hopefully) be scoring often, so if you don’t know it already, learn it.

And while you’re at it, learn our alma mater too—when we come out with a homecoming victory, all the remaining fans, football players, and cheerleaders will join arms and sing directly out of page one of the Nevada Hymn Book: “Where the Truckee’s snowfed waters drop from mountain’s crest…”

Wolf Pack fans, let’s make this the best Homecoming gameday yet. Our team needs us, so let’s deliver. Go Pack!

Caden Fabbi studies political science. He can be reached at dcoffey@unr.edu.