SMU Football hosts International Students in Unique Gameday Experience

Since 2021, SMU International Student and Scholar Services and SMU Football have jointly hosted Football 101, an event aimed at immersing students into the raucous, rowdy and increasingly renowned culture of Mustang football. A three-hour seminar with Senior Assistant for Player Development and Dallas Recruiting Relations is the first part of these events. An exclusive tour of SMU’s football facilities and full explanation of concepts of football are included as part of these event experiences.

As part of this experience, the international students got to experience the pregame experience on kickoff during SMU’s first home game on September 2, 2023. By 11:00AM, everyone was situated in their seats and sporting complementary all-white True Brand X SMU Upside Down Dallas hats for Peruna to sprint across the field and a F-16 flyover, as a following act and then the game began. The International Student and Scholar Services office and SMU Athletics believe that they can create a fabric in their program by expanding knowledge of football to different departments with different cultural backgrounds. They believe this can help be a support system for student-athletes, who typically have families that cant’ be in attendance for every meet, match and game.