MOREHEAD, Ky. -Â Rocky and Barb Niemeyer are no ordinary fans.
They are Morehead State University super fans.
The Niemeyers have not missed an Eagles home basketball game, men's or women's, in more than 15 years. They're also regulars at football games and have been known to follow other teams, including softball and volleyball.
Rocky, 78, and Barb, 74, had birthdays in May. Both are retired teachers.
The Niemeyers met when Rocky, then 45, enrolled at MSU to pursue a Master's degree and Rank One teaching classification. Barb, an education professor, was Rocky's instructor for three classes.
Later, they began to see each other socially and wound up getting married. They celebrated their 28th anniversary on May 28.
Their love affair with Morehead State sports began about the same time.
"Our neighbor down the street here was Loretta Marlow. She was the girls' basketball coach, so that was back in 1992, I think," Rocky said. "So we started going to the girls' games back then. We just got interested in it.
"And, of course, we went to football games and things, but basketball just seemed to be where we settled. We went to the Bahamas last year with the girls, also."
The Niemeyers are hard to miss at games.
"We're pretty vocal," Barb said.
Decked in matching neon yellowish-green Morehead State jackets, the Niemeyers come equipped with signs to raise. That idea was hatched when the grandmother of former men's basketball player Sam Goodman brought a sign that simply read "Go Sam!"
The next game, Rocky had his own "Go Sam!" sign. And then he made one for Kenneth Faried. And then …
"It got to the point where the players started coming to say 'do I get a sign this year?'" Barb said.
"And now I've got so many that it's out of hand," Rocky added.
Barb's favorite sign was concocted this past basketball season for Xavier Moon. Whenever the junior guard hit a three-point shot, Rocky displayed the message "You Got Mooned!"
The Niemeyers make a point of trying to extend their relationships with student-athletes beyond the playing surface.
"We feel like we are friends to the players, not just fans," Barb said. "It goes back. While I was teaching, I had a number of players in my classes and got to know them really well – Donnie Tyndall, Brett Roberts and Shannon Litton and Julie Magrane. I just got to know them and we followed them because we wanted to support the kids. It has kind of grown from there, and now we feel like we're friends. We're almost related to most of the players."
In addition to last year's preseason trip to the Bahamas, the Niemeyers accompanied the women's basketball team to California in December. That ranks as a highlight trip, according to Barb.
"We were on the road on New Year's Eve and they got a meeting room set aside for us, and they brought in refreshments and stuff," she said. "And the girls had a (dancing) competition. We got to be judges for that and it was really a fun evening."
Barb also gives two thumbs up to the recruiting efforts being made by men's basketball coach
Sean Woods and women's coach
Greg Todd.
"Both of them are working hard to improve the program and bring in quality players," she said. "And that's one of the things I admire, is when you get to know these kids, they are really nice kids. It's not that they play well. It's that they are nice kids. I appreciate that the coaches work hard to maintain that with the teams."
The Niemeyers encourage others to join them in becoming super fans.
"If I were to sum up the way I feel about it," Barb said, "people who just go to a game and walk out the door and don't have the opportunity or make the opportunity to get acquainted with the kids, they don't know what they're missing. More people should get involved with the teams, the individuals themselves, and learn about them."
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