Baylor Line named college football’s best walk-out tradition
We all knew it. Now the nation knows it, too.
In a national vote conducted by USA Today, the Baylor Line run was named the No. 1 pregame walk-out tradition in all of college football, beating such other traditions as Auburn’s War Eagle flight, Colorado’s running Ralphie and Virginia Tech’s “Enter Sandman.”
It’s a tradition unmatched in college sports. For more than 50 years, the Baylor Line has run onto the field before Baylor football games — first at Floyd Casey Stadium, and now at McLane — to form a human tunnel ahead of the football team’s entrance. Each student wears a gold jersey displaying his/her graduation year and chosen nickname on the back. Once the team has taken the field, Line members take their seats in an exclusive section directly behind the opponent’s bench to cheer on the Bears.
View this post on Instagram
Like most traditions, the Baylor Line has evolved over time. It was founded in 1970 as a spirit organization for first-year male students; a year later, the Baylor Sideline was created as a parallel organization for women. Baylor Line members wore special t-shirts and cheered from a special section in the stands, often serving as a card section.
In the mid 1990s, the Line was reorganized into something much more like we see today, including all Baylor freshmen (and eventually transfers as well) who wear special jerseys — at first, alternating green and white each year, and since the early 2000s, going with all gold. In 2017, the generation of Baylor women who had missed out on running the Line from 1970-1994 were invited back for a special Line run that many participants still talk about today.
For generations of Bears, the Baylor Line is one of BU’s most beloved traditions — and now, it’s been recognized as one of the nation’s best, too.
Sic ’em, Baylor Line!