The Big Red Freakout, now in its 48th year, is one of the biggest Rensselaer spirit events of the academic year. The time-honored tradition has united the RPI community for decades. Starting in 1978, the Big Red Freakout began with a showdown against the University of New Hampshire. Fans were to wear red and bring noisemakers, receiving commemorative gifts as part of the festivities.
This year’s Freakout saw the Engineers upset Harvard in a 3-1 victory to mountainous applause. At a school mostly populated by nerdy introverted engineers, the Big Red Freakout is one of the few truly spirited events of the RPI calendar—and it does not disappoint. During the 1987 Freakout, gifts were handed out to fans in the form of red plastic noisemakers. The noise generated within the stadium sounded off RPI’s 8-3 victory against Brown, and subsequently led the NCAA to create the “RPI Rule,” which banned noisemakers from Division I athletic competitions.
Out of the 48 Big Red Freakouts, the Engineers hold a record of 26-16-6, with a 5-3-1 record in the past ten years (the 2020-2021 season was canceled due to COVID-19). This year’s game marked the first Freakout for both Head Coach Eric Lang and 20 out of 28 of the Engineer skaters. Struggling throughout this season to find cohesion in a team of new faces, it was rewarding to see Rensselaer not only take down a respected opponent within the ECAC, but do so in the name of RPI pride.
The Freakout also brings in a sizable alumni fanbase, including several old members of the RPI pep band, who broke out the old rugby shirts to play for the game. RPI’s most seasoned returners to the Houston Field House brought back memories of several old Engineer traditions. Fans reminisced about plenty, including the RPI Hockey Line—the line which students would sit in for hours or even days to get prime seats for the hockey season—and the pins that used to be custom-made for every hockey game of the season.
“I’ve been part of the band since I came here in 2009… The fans have been fantastic through and through. If anything, we’ve even got more spirit, especially with the new president…I keep coming back because of the [pep] band.” - Senior Lecturer Charles Harold Martin ’13, ’16G, Department of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy, at last year's game.
“We get to see that coming back to campus it’s healthy, it’s fun—this was their home for four years, [and] it’s our home for four years…you get to see… the community that Rensselaer fosters.” - 158th Grand Marshal Vivian Rost-Nasshan ’26, at last year’s game.
“It’s the biggest crowd I’ve seen!” - President of the Union Isabele Lieber ’25, ’26G.
“One thing to note is we’ve got a great video crew…Coach Lang has [challenged] a couple of these challenging goals, and he’s won more than we’ve lost…it’s a really good sign, great staff—and that was a big turnaround, being down two is a lot worse than being down one.” - President Martin A. Schmidt ’81, after the first period.
“When I was a student in the mid-90s, there was a woman who would come to the games with a big bag. And she would make buttons for all the games…When I was a freshman in ’92, my RA talked the whole floor into buying season tickets. So we all sat on the hockey line, which you don’t know what it is, [but] we sat on the hockey line as a dorm…I’ve had season tickets since then,” - Aren Paster ’96, ’98G, ’01G
The Big Red Freakout provides everything you could ever want from a college’s traditions— something to yell about, something to cheer for, something to add more lines to the rulebook, and several things to bring the Rensselaer community together.
