“Helping the Kids Out”

Alums Support Students in Ticket Line

When the call went out for volunteers to pass out donated food and beverages to hundreds of students camped out for tickets to Saturday’s Aztecs vs. BYU basketball game, David Hamilton (’66) answered.  

Aztec for Life David Hamilton hands out sodas to students camped out for tickets to the Aztecs vs. BYU game.

"I'm just helping these kids out,” said the SDSU Alumni Association lifetime member. “I love basketball and I love the fact that they're supporting the team.”

Hamilton was one of more than 30 alumni volunteers who spent the hours between 10:00 p.m. and midnight February 24 delivering pizza, water, sodas and coffee to students bundled up against the winter chill.  He followed the long line from behind Viejas Arena to the center of campus supplying the students with soda and offering encouraging words.

"They appreciate what we're doing for them and I appreciate their support," he said.

SDSU sophomore, Renee Estrada, appreciates the food and beverages distributed to students by Aztec alumni.

SDSU sophomore, Renee Estrada, could use both the soda and the encouragement.  By ten o’clock that Thursday night she had been in line for 15 hours and estimated her chances of getting a game ticket at “about 30 percent.” Dressed in layers of warm clothing, she said she was less concerned with what the weather might do in the remaining hours before Friday’s 7:30 a.m. ticket office opening than with the other students who were walking past her.

“I'm just watching hundreds of people walk by me and, obviously, jump in line with their friends,” said the 20-year-old business major from San Diego. “But there's nothing I can do because I don't know if they've been here since yesterday.  At least it was nice on the part of the alumni to give us a little fuel for staying awake and making it through the next nine hours."

(l-r) SDSU freshman, Oliver Lewis and his friend, Keith Lin, enjoy pizza as they wait in line for tickets to the Aztecs vs. BYU basketball game.

Much farther up in the line, Oliver Lewis and his friend, Keith Lin, enjoyed free pizza. Camping out at the northwest corner of Viejas Arena, they felt pretty sure their strategy of arriving on Wednesday would assure them tickets.

"I want to see this game," said Lewis, a freshman from Huntington Beach.  Surrounded by singing and chanting students, he said he and Lin had actually managed to get some sleep and stay relatively comfortable.

“We've been eating free food and water and everyone has been taking good care of everyone,” Lewis said. “I just feel bad for the people who got here so late.  Hopefully, they're going to get tickets, but I don't know if they're going to last that long."

Aztec for Life Garrett Ng ('92) distributes hot coffee to students waiting in line for tickets to the Aztecs vs. BYU basketball game.

On the steps to the west of the arena, Aztec basketball season highlights were projected on a large screen for the waiting students to watch.  Just behind the screen, several danced to a DJ’s beat just a few feet from no fewer than eight media vans and television live trucks broadcasting the spectacle to San Diego on the 11 o’clock news.

“It’s a fun event,” observed Garrett Ng (’92), an Alumni Association lifetime member who walked the line passing out hot coffee. “I'm trying to think back to when I was a student and I don't think I've seen anything like this at all, ever.  The energy here is contagious.”

The energy was never higher than when members of the men’s basketball team passed along the line.  Aztecs captain D. J. Gay and teammate Tim Shelton found themselves besieged with autograph and photo requests when they arrived to express their appreciation for the support of their fellow students.  

(l-r) Basketball players D. J. Gay and Tim Shelton pose for photos with a fan outside Viejas Arena.

“It’s amazing,” Gay said of the ticket turnout. “It takes a lot for people to be camping out since Wednesday.  People have classes and stuff to do, but for them to come out here days early to get a ticket leaves me no choice but to come out here and say, 'Thank you.'"

"This is phenomenal,” Shelton observed. “This is one of those things you dream of as a college athlete, to have this kind of experience.  It's great.”


After dawn on Friday, with ticket distribution less than an hour away, members of the Aztecs football team arrived with boxes of doughnuts to hand out to waiting students.  Quarterback Ryan Lindley said he was gratified to see such overwhelming student support for fellow Aztec athletes.

Aztec quarterback Ryan Lindley distributes doughnuts to students waiting in line for tickets for the Aztecs vs. BYU basketball game.

“Even if it's for basketball, it's for us as a group of teams,” Lindley said. “We're excited to see that and we appreciate what they do for us in the fall."

Lindley said the student ticket campout was a sign of evolving times for SDSU athletics.

"This wasn't the kind of stuff that goes down at San Diego State,” the quarterback said. “It's great to see because this is the kind of stuff that, when guys like me and (former Aztec wide receiver Vincent) Brown decided to come here when we were 17 years old and talking about being Aztecs, this is the stuff we wanted to see and it's awesome to see it come to fruition.  It's awesome to see the culture of the university change."

Change, with any luck, that is only just beginning.