History
A Brief History of BobcatFans L.L.C.
In 2002 a student by the name of Rick Koch (pronounced Coach) was looking for a way to build school spirit and take a stand against what he coined “wannabes”. These wannabes were SWT students who were so madly in love with a burnt orange school only 30 miles up the road that they would wear their gear on his beloved SWT campus and talked about their sports programs as if they were attending that school.
One Year Anniversary of BobcatFans Magazine. Soprano Spoof.
After injecting his shock and awe “Forget The Saw” campaign where he set up posters and sold t-shirts in the Quad depicting a longhorn with a crosshair in the center of it’s head and denounced wannabes, he waited to see the students’ reaction.
The response was overwhelming. Shirts sold quickly and more and more students were making it known that they empathized with the campaign. Of course there were detractors but 9 out of 10 times those were wannabes themselves not liking the movement and giving the old excuse of some family member attending that “other university”.
To build on this momentum Rick with the help of his old Butler Hall friend Aaron Gadberry created BobcatSports.com in the mists of the name change (a bill that Rick highly supported since he first heard about it in 1999). The website hosted a message board and a gallery of photos of wannabes, Texas State Hotties, news, and information of what was happening on campus.
The big launch party for BobcatSports.com came during the 2003 football season when Rick contacted the local HEB director and asked if he would be willing to help fund a tailgate to feed the masses. HEB was on board from the get go. Rick wanted a tailgate where everyone would feel welcome and could spin off other tailgating in an otherwise empty parking lot. The inaugural BobcatSports.com tailgate fed over 2000 fans of all ages and grew from there.
L to R: Rick Koch, Former ASG President Jerry Parker & Aaron Gadberry. Circa 2003.
BobcatSports.com merged with BobcatFans.com in early 2005 right in time for an amazing football playoff run. During that season BobcatFans.com numbers grew to 5 million plus hits per month and the tailgating that grew from nothing was starting the night before game day.
2006 was an exciting year for BobcatFans. Rick brought on Jody Campbell, a very passionate Bobcat he met at the tailgates, to help oversee the BobcatFans.com message board as well as launching BobcatFans Magazine.
BobcatFans Magazine was the brainchild of Rick Koch as he wanted to expand on BobcatFans.com and build on an audience hungry for Texas State information. With the help of proud Texas State alumnus William Bowling (WB Creative) BobcatFans Magazine debuted its first issue at the 2006 Maroon & Gold Game.
In 2008 Rick acquired full ownership of BobcatFans.com and asked longtime posters Robert Wood and Casey O’brien to help with the day to day running of the site as well as write articles for BobcatFans Magazine.
Now in August 2009 BobcatFans.com has switched the look of the website again in order to help bring the fans it serves closer to the information they desire.
Thank you to all the members and readers of BobcatFans that help make this community possible. Go Bobcats and Show ‘Em State!
