Minutes before kickoff at ISU football games, fans buzz as they pile into Jack Trice Stadium.

The marching band’s beat pulses through the stadium, and last-second preparations are made in the locker room before another grueling battle.

On the 50-yard line, Jeff Johnson is wearing a cardinal-and-gold jersey with the number “68” on the front and is looking up at approximately 45,000 screaming Cyclone fans.

Most people would be nervous, but Johnson isn’t most people.

“I don’t have a shy bone in me,” Johnson said. “I wasn’t nervous. I was just proud of the way people responded.”

Johnson, director of alumni services since 1999, is quickly becoming known for his newest role as the “cheer guy” to ISU students and fans. His booming voice can be heard throughout the stadium as he leads the crowd in pre-game cheers such as “I-S-U.” He also dances along with the band to the chant of “ISU – whatcha gonna do?”

This isn’t exactly what was in the job description when Johnson took the position at Iowa State seven years ago, but for a self-described “Iowa State salesman,” it’s just another way he can bring people together at Iowa State.

“It doesn’t matter what your status is,” Johnson said. “Alumni or student – for that moment, let’s all be fans.”

Athletic Director Jamie Pollard approached Johnson with the pregame idea after watching him pump up yet another crowd at an Alumni Association pep rally during Iowa State’s trip to the EV1.net Houston Bowl last December.

“When we thought of the idea, there was only one person I had in mind – Jeff Johnson,” Pollard said. “I don’t know how he does it, but people respond to him. He certainly has the right personality and is passionate about Iowa State University.”

Pollard isn’t the only one who considers Johnson the right man for the job. ISU football coach Dan McCarney is quick to praise his energy as well.

“It’s game day every day for Jeff Johnson,” McCarney said. “You don’t have to have a 45 to 50,000 seat stadium full of people for him to do what he does. He just has great energy, great enthusiasm, great passion for this university. This is a better university because of Jeff Johnson, no doubt about it.”

Pollard told Johnson he wanted to put him front and center on the field to transfer what he does at pep rallies to Jack Trice Stadium and ultimately to Hilton Coliseum as well.

He told Johnson to take his time and think it over – it took Johnson a couple minutes to say he’d do it.

“It’s all part of Pollard’s way of re-creating the game-day experience,” Johnson said. “It’s a way to get people to know what’s happening rather than just being spectators, then walk away from it, not having any responsibility for how exciting and how big a difference you made for being part of it.”

Although Johnson said he enjoys the opportunities to step on the field and pump up a crowd, his passion comes out when he begins talking about the work being done with the ISU Alumni Association.

Many are surprised when they learn Johnson isn’t even an ISU graduate, but rather from the University of Southern Mississippi. Johnson, the youngest of 10 children, was the first in his family to graduate from college; he received a computer science degree in 1986.

“I came from a very poor family economically,” Johnson said. “We did have a solid family relative to family values and commitment to education. All 10 of us graduated from high school.”

Johnson said growing up as a farm boy has helped him fit in here in Iowa. His strong work ethic began when he started working at the age of 8 to help supplement a family income that was less than $9,000 a year.

Upon graduation, Johnson worked in various alumni relations capacities for Southern Mississippi, Kansas and Illinois. After three-and-a-half years as alumni director at Illinois, he received a call from Iowa State about becoming the new alumni director.

After a campus visit combined with past experiences with Iowa State, Johnson quickly told himself if he was offered the job, “he was going to take it.”

And he did.

Johnson was named the seventh alumni director at Iowa State since Edgar Stanton, a member of the first ISU graduating class in 1872. Stanton created the organization as a way to stay connected with his classmates. Johnson is the first to hold the position without graduating from Iowa State.

Iowa State’s alumni association is one of just a handful of associations nationally that were not started by the university or departments of the university, Johnson said. Only $200,000 of the association’s $3 million budget comes from the university for payment of services they provide.

“This is truly an association of alumni, not necessarily an alumni association,” Johnson said. “The alums wanted this. We don’t feel we are working for Iowa State. We are working on behalf of Iowa State and for the alumni.”

Johnson places a big importance on students and alumni knowing the importance of their degrees and connection to the university.

“I like to tell people that their degree is like a piece of stock,” Johnson said. “When you go out into the marketplace and you present that degree, it either trades well – you get a job and people feel confident that that degree has something behind it – or it doesn’t. A lot of that is based on the current reputation of the university.”

This is the reason, Johnson said, that it is so vital for Iowa State to continue to keep facilities strong and be able to recruit top-caliber faculty and pay them well. Faculty not only teach and do research, they bring prestige to the university, which brings more students.

“Students need to understand that it’s not just about money,” Johnson said. “It’s about the larger reputation of the institution.”

Johnson spends much of his time spreading his message about Iowa State by speaking to various groups on and off campus, as well as helping the athletic department talk to recruits and parents from time to time about life at Iowa State and the alumni association.

“We use him directly in helping our recruiting,” McCarney said. “He’s one of the great ambassadors for Iowa State University on this campus. We bring him in and let him speak to our recruits and parents. He’s just a fabulous representative for Iowa State.”

The No. 68 jersey Johnson wears has a special meaning to him and his wife Peggy. Although Johnson is a fan of junior offensive lineman John Tjaden, No. 68 for the Cyclones, he doesn’t don his jersey for that reason when he’s pumping up the crowd before the game.

“I met her when she was in sixth grade and I was in eighth,” Johnson said. “I surprised her with that. I didn’t tell her about it until game day. It was a salute to my best friend.”