Record crowd fills Ferrell for ESPN’s College GameDay and national broadcast

For the first time in school history, Baylor played host to ESPN’s College GameDay on Saturday, with the self-proclaimed worldwide leader in sports broadcasting live from the Ferrell Center floor Saturday morning before the Bears’ nationally televised game vs. Texas that night. (Click here for a photo gallery from the day, or here for a video recap.)

With Baylor students out on spring break this week, there were some worries that the crowd might be sparse. We need not have feared, as Baylor fans — students, alumni, faculty/staff, and Waco residents — again rose to the challenge. About 3,000 fans gathered for the morning GameDay broadcast, giving Baylor an excellent showing on national TV and drawing rave reviews even from the seasoned GameDay staff. Later that evening, a new Ferrell Center-record crowd of 10,627 — the third time that record’s been broken this year — saw LaceDarius Dunn set the Big 12 career scoring mark in the Bears’ 60-54 loss to No. 7 Texas.

Saturday’s crowd brought the year’s total attendance for the men up to 125,899, second-most in program history. Coupled with the Lady Bears’ single-season attendance record and Baylor football recording its highest average attendance since 1995, let no one say Bear fans don’t support their teams. Baylor fans have truly risen up this year.

Sic ’em, Bears!