The Red Army website states, “Our primary purpose is to support RPI athletics by making sure student fans are heard loud and clear. The Red Army inspires students with pride in Rensselaer by promoting school spirit and energizing traditions. Greater involvement in all events and by all students on campus—especially at sporting events—is our mission.”

The Red Army grew out of Go Be Red last year. McLean commented on the transition from Go Be Red to the Red Army saying, “Last year Go Be Red was made up of teams who got points when they participated in events selected. That is a lot of work. Since the Red Army is a group that supports all events and athletic teams, it is easier to belong.”

Melissa Termine-Goetz, student services administrator for the union, has worked closely with the chairs and coordinators of the Red Army, and sees the club as a good way for students to be active and to bring spirit to all the games on campus and an opportunity for students to support the RPI teams.

Both chairs of the club, Blake Huovie ’08 and Joe Petrowski ’08—who are both on the Polytechnic Editorial Board—were members of the winning Go Be Red team last year, Banana Slug Muffins. In addition to that, Red Army treasurer, Dan Briar ’07 is a former member of another team, the Red Hawk Ramrod. Members from both teams wanted to keep Go Be Red growing from year to year, and to do so—according to Petrowski, “the biggest change that needed to be made was removing the competition aspect. Instead of rewarding one small group for being active in athletic support, we wanted to give benefits to every person who joined—which is the foundation of the Red Army.”

According to Briar, everyone who joins as a full member of the Red Army gets a member t-shirt, access to all Red Army-sponsored events, and access to season tickets in the Red Army’s section at the field house. The club also has “non-full members,” who are the students who can opt to pay $15 instead of the $40 it costs to be a full members and still receive a shirt and other benefits, but no hockey tickets.

The club’s founders originally budgeted for 75 members to join this year. Briar said, “We were blown away by the 200 that signed up and paid at the activities fair followed by over the 100 more that signed up at Red Army Stakeout.”

In response to the large number of members who signed up, the Red Army has had to accommodate accordingly. As of right now, there are 203 seats in the Houston Field house reserved for the Red Army in sections 33 and 44 and a portion of section 14. To make this possible, the Red Army had to go to the Executive Board to increase their funding in order to purchase the 203 seats. In addition to the overwhelming number of members who had signed up, season hockey tickets jumped twenty dollars in price, which also led to the increase in funding from the Union.

“It was viewed as the money going directly back to the students, and that is exactly what we intended to do. Instead of spending a lot of money on a few people, as Go Be Red did, the Red Army will be spending a little bit of money on a lot of people,” according to Huovie.

There have been rumors about the fact that not all Red Army members will be able to get seats at the hockey games, and this is evidently true since only 203 seats are reserved. Petrowski explained the ticket situation saying, “Unfortunately, all the seats around us are taken by fraternities or athletic department holds, so we will not be able to expand more in the way of hockey tickets.” The seats will be given out on a first-come-first-serve basis. Members can start picking up tickets at 6 pm at the will-call window the Red Army will have at the field house. The first 203 people there get the tickets.

In addition to the ticket situation, there has been some contention over the club’s name itself, the Red Army. According to Petrowski, “The name Red Army came out of a huge list put together by Max Yates, Ken Ralph, Blake Huovie, Carlos Perea, and myself. There was a lot of controversy over the name, but the majority of people said that it didn’t offend them.”

“Since Go Be Red does not exist anymore, there is no other group that really compares to us as far as program goals,” explained Huovie. He went on to say, “The only other group that I see that could have a similar goal is the Pep Band. They have a devout history with RPI and their support of athletics—[is immense]—from playing at every men’s hockey game [to even] some of the football games. They bring only a part of the spirited atmosphere at athletic events. The part that was missing at RPI was the fan base.The club will bring that fan base to the events.”

With the onset of this new club there have been some rumors that the Red Army was trying to overshadow and make obsolete the Hockey Line Tradition. McLean responded to that contention, saying, “No one tried to out-shadow or outdo the hockey line—for years, a handful of teams sat on line and would buy seats at the game. I have been here for 14 years—the line has gone from a good number of groups from August to sales date down to a couple of teams the weekend before. The line is dying a slow, agonizing death. The Red Army tried to find a way to boost interest in sales without it looking like you had to be on line to buy them. People can sleep outside the Union if they want, but the event drew attention to the process and brought in more people to buy tickets than previous years—the numbers are almost doubled.”

Huovie echoed McLean’s sentiments saying, “We were approached by a few people to have a meeting to see if there were some creative ideas to revamp the Hockey Line. Contrary to what people believe, the Red Army did not want to ‘do away with’ Hockey Line.”

Forward Kurt Colling ’09 commented on the tradition saying, “Well, the hockey line was dying and any support from a group of that magnitude is good for the team.”

According to Rick Hartt ’70, Managing Director of the Union, the tradition of the hockey line and its viability had been discussed for the last 10 years. The tradition has continued annually since its inception, however, not many were present to carry it on in recent years. The Hockey Line was important after the Engineers won the NCAA Championship in 1985, but as years went on, the line dwindled. Petrowski noted, “The line used to wrap twice around the Union and start months in advance. Now it has shrunk to a few die-hard fraternities who go out a week in advance. The idea of the Stakeout was to get people excited for Hockey Line again.”

There have already been plans made for next year concerning Hockey Line and the Red Army. Huovie said, “I have already spoke with my fellow chair Joe Petrowski, and when planning for next years events we will keep hockey line the way it has been in the past years, but in addition will include our Stakeout event as a “grand finale.”

The men’s head hockey coach, Seth Appert, expressed his excitement saying, “We are thrilled with the support, energy, and school spirit being shown by members of the Red Army. Although the Hockey Line has been a great tradition, it may have been time to start a new tradition on this campus. We appreciate the enthusiasm of our student body, led by the Red Army, and we look forward to having them on our side at games this year.”

The Red Army had an impressive first few weeks as a Union club and shows much potential for this year. Petrowski said, “Next year, we hope to be more supportive of all sports teams, not just football and hockey. The huge membership shows that the student body wanted to get involved and is excited about RPI.”

Briar commented that he hopes the Red Army will retain most of its first-year members, who are mostly freshmen, and add another 200 participants every year. The goals is to eventually get a stable membership of 1,000.”

The Red Army could not have come to its early success without the help of many within the administration and school. According to Petrowski, the Union Executive Board was very supportive of the club in hearing their proposals and increasing the club’s budget. Futhermore, Norris Pearson and Dorothy Conroy from the Houston Field House have been very supportive of the club in providing a will call both for the Red Army and allowing the club to reserve seats.

A lot of support has also come from Appert who has worked to help the Red Army and has come up with great ideas to go hand in hand with the Red Army’s goal to increase school spirit. Both chairs credited the members of the Union Administration office that have been very helpful guides in forming and continuing the club’s success.

The Red Army has grown immensely in its first few weeks with the help of many people, yet McLean summed it up best, “They are the Red Army—Joe, Blake and Hannah changed the way ‘Go Be Red’ worked and came up with the Red Army.”