This is the first of an ongoing series highlighting Thundering Herd “Man Caves” or themed rooms. Trace Johnson will be bringing your rooms to life here on ThunderCast Online, and he is starting with his own room.
Like so many others, Marshall University athletic teams have provided me with memories that will
last a lifetime. I’ve been a fan since 2002 and while not nearly as long as most, I was introduced
to Marshall as a third grader and the rest, as they say, is history. I’ve been going to football
home games since 2003 and haven’t missed one since 2010 while also traveling to several road
football games over the years as well. Football was the catalyst for my fandom, but seeing
Marshall succeed in every sport is the ultimate goal, and the Herd has been doing a great job of
that as of late. I am proud to call myself a forever son of Marshall thanks to my degree in sports
journalism as part of the class of 2016. Throughout my 21 years as a fan, I have collected quite a
lot of Herd memorabilia, enough to make my own man cave, of sorts. I’ve always been a big fan
of seeing fans’ collections and love seeing the passion towards Marshall that I have. I’ve
managed to obtain some truly awesome items over the years. I’m going to showcase a few items
individually, but it’s difficult to not talk about practically every item as in-depth as possible.
Here’s a few pictures of the entire room, first things first.
The first item I want to showcase is the most beautiful of all of my Herd memorabilia, the replica
Marshall memorial fountain that Hallmark sold back in 2020. There’s not much of a story with
this item, it was straight-forward from the start, I had to have it as soon as I saw it available for
preorder. They limited them to only 500 (I think that was the number) and I’m happy to have
gotten my hands on one. It’s been a constant beauty among my collection ever since and will
remain that for years to come. Also, big shoutout to Greg Hendricks for hooking me up with the
cherry on top, the mini plaque with the names of all 75 victims of the crash.
The next piece I want to showcase is my autographed front-page cover of Marshall’s win over
Wichita State in the 2018 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. I had my eyes set on getting
this autographed from the start, and it happened to work out when I got most of the players from
that team to sign it at the Herd madness event prior to the 2018-19 season. I even got Dan
D’Antoni’s autograph on it as well.
I got a rare opportunity to meet someone that transcended the game of football, and I took full
advantage. I attended the 2018 Pro Football Hall of Fame ceremony to see Marshall legend and
West Virginia’s own Randy Moss get inducted. It was an awesome experience, but it was even
sweeter when he announced, mid-speech no less, that he was coming to the Charleston Town
Center mall the following day to meet fans. So, I got a couple things autographed by him, one
being this newspaper cover documenting his induction into the hall of fame.
Last, but not least, is probably my most prized Marshall possession. I got a replica helmet for
Christmas way back in 2005 and I decided, several years later, to start getting autographs from
Marshall football greats on this helmet. I sometimes have to stop myself and think dang, I really
have some legends on this helmet. Randy Moss, Chad Pennington, Ahmad Bradshaw, Troy
Brown, Reggie Oliver, Vinny Curry, Mike Barber, Bob Pruett, Rakeem Cato, and so many others
have autographed this helmet for me. It’s my piece de resistance, as they say, and I hope to get
more Herd greats to autograph it in the future.
I have enjoyed sharing my Marshall room with you, and I hope you will want to let everyone get a look at yours as well. If you want to have an article showcasing your room, hit me up at tracehhs2012@hotmail.com or on Twitter at @Trace_Johnson94 and yours can be featured next!
A very nice Herd Fan room!