25 best college football fan atmospheres
By Nick Villano
15. West Virginia Mountaineers
Hearing “Country Roads” after every single sporting event is one of the better traditions in college sports. Keeping John Denver’s great work alive with one of the best songs to belt out with a crowd of 50,000 people. West Virginia fans know how to celebrate wins, and it usually has to do with this classic blaring up and down High Street.
That’s just the start. There’s always the reputation for burning couches. If you’ve never been a part of a good couch burning, it’s definitely a bucket list item. However, WVU is so much more than that reputation.
The gold and blue hits the parking lots of Milan Puskar Stadium starting before dawn. RVs line the spaces with Mountaineer fans ready to celebrate their great friends and family from across the Appalachian Mountain trail. Like all good tailgates, Mountaineer fans will cross mingle making it one big party. Going from one tailgate to the next for hours before the game lets you see just how welcoming this fanbase is. Unless you wear the other team’s colors, of course.
Mountaineers have a reputation for a reason. One doesn’t have to go to the game to get the “game-day” experience. There are yard parties with TVs and projector screens on just about every street in Morgantown. There are also about a dozen bars within a block with some crazy drink specials in the downtown area. That’s not even considering Mario’s Fishbowl, which is a local favorite.