The 55,000 fans who pack Jack Trice Stadium on Saturdays have seen the Cyclones through their struggles in recent seasons. For some, however, this feeling is all too familiar.

For people like Bob Voetberg, a Cyclone football player himself in 1950 and 1951 and a season ticket holder since 1957, Iowa State’s 482–574 all-time record is not a deterrent. The reason they keep coming back and watching the Cyclones year after year boils down to the love of the game itself and the loyalty they feel toward the university.

“I’m an Iowa State supporter through and through,” Voetberg said. “We’ve had a lot of bad years. I keep coming back because I have respect for the institution and I was a football player. When I was playing, I was also going to vet school as well as going to school 9–12 on Saturday. I had respect for the people at Iowa State, and I still do.”

Voetberg’s favorite memory as a season ticket holder came in 1971 when the Cyclones clinched their first ever bowl game with Johnny Majors at the helm.

“Everybody was out of their worries then,” Voetberg said. “That was really wonderful.”

That bowl win came after seven of the previous eight seasons resulted in losing records. Another of Voetberg’s favorite memories was the Cyclones’ 2000 season, when quarterback Sage Rosenfels, now with the Minnesota Vikings, led the team to a victory over the University of Pittsburgh in the Insight.com Bowl.

John Pace, also a season ticket holder since 1957, first came to Iowa State as the head of recreation and facilities management for the university and has watched the program grow from Clyde Williams Field, which had a maximum capacity of 14,000 people, into the 55,000-seat capacity of Jack Trice Stadium that the Cyclones now call home.

Pace felt the facilities themselves had a lot to do with the football team’s woes over the years.

“When you looked around at the other teams around the league at the time, you had teams like Nebraska that didn’t have to share the state with other schools like we do where we have Iowa and Northern Iowa,” Pace said. “Iowa, especially, was different because they were in a power conference in the Big Ten, so they were able to develop their programs a lot faster than us. If you were to take a recruit to Iowa State and then take him to Iowa, there was no question who had the better facilities.”

Another reason the ISU football facilities grew was simple: parking. The smaller capacity of Clyde Williams Field didn’t provide enough parking for students to be able to come to the games.

“This presented a problem,” Pace said. “We had people complaining that the closest they could park was four miles away and then they had to make a hike to the stadium.”

Pace’s favorite memory as a Cyclone ticket holder came with the emergence of the 1959 Cyclone team, which came to be known as the “Dirty 30,” when the team finished with a 7–3 record despite not having the numbers other teams did.

“I was so excited about the ‘Dirty 30’ because, that year, people were saying there was no way we could have a good team. What I saw that team accomplish with just 30 players on the roster was just absolutely remarkable,” Pace said.

Both Pace and Voetberg have enjoyed watching the facilities and football program expand and continue to gain a supportive following from the Ames community.

“Iowa State is lucky to have loyal fan support,” Pace said. “I think we’ve had good, honest teams, which has led to a consistently good crowd throughout the years. All the fans want is for our team to win; I know that doesn’t always happen, but they will be here regardless. A lot of them are alumni who like Ames and like Iowa State, and they believe that we still have the opportunity to be a winning team.”

Voetberg acknowledges that the crowd situation is quite different from his playing days, when they could hardly fill Clyde Williams Field to full capacity.

“It’s been wonderful seeing the crowd increase,” Voetberg said. “We know we won’t always have a winner, but we still enjoy it.”

It’s not just former players, alumni and season ticket holders who have shown their loyalty and support to the program over the years. Dustin Fuglsang, senior in management information systems, has purchased season tickets every year he has been at Iowa State despite the team’s number of wins decreasing from his freshman to his junior year.

Fuglsang understands where the program is as far as its resources and sees the purchase of student football tickets as a way to help the program grow.

“Teams aren’t going to get better unless they have better resources and facilities at their disposal, and that comes from revenue,” Fuglsang said. “Part of getting more revenue is students buying season tickets. I’m a loyal Iowa State supporter, and I want to see this program grow and become the best that we can be.”

Fuglsang plans to follow in Voetberg’s and Pace’s footsteps to become a long-time ISU season ticket holder after he graduates.

“It’s fans like those guys who make this program what it is, in my opinion,” Fuglsang said. “There are a number of steps we’re going to have to take to become a top echelon program, but one of the first steps to achieving that is a loyal fan base, and I admire people like that who have seen this program go through its ups and downs.”

As the Cyclones prepare to take on Army on Saturday, Voetberg, Pace, Fuglsang and the rest of the loyal ISU supporters will be watching in earnest as the Cyclones prepare to take their next step toward national prominence.