After Middle Tennessee State missed a game-winning field-goal attempt against Illinois on Saturday, junior Liaohan He jumped from his seat in the Memorial Stadium broadcast booth and shouted into his microphone.
“It didn’t go in,” he exclaimed in Mandarin Chinese to his listening audience. “Illinois won the game 27-25! God bless Illinois. The miracle, it happened. Everyone is stand up and cheering. This is the charm of football, this is the magic of Memorial Stadium! Illinois has won all the home games so far. They did it.”
He and his broadcast partner Yekai Lu are the first to call an NCAA football game in Mandarin. They are broadcasting all Illini home games online through a free audio link on the team’s website and a mobile app. Their next broadcast will be Saturday when Illinois hosts Nebraska.
With a Chinese student population of approximately 5,295 on the campus of more than 44,000, audio streams of the games in Mandarin are, school officials say, an effort to help those Illini students feel greater connected to the university.
“It’s interesting because in China we are so good at pingpong,” He said of the difference in fan culture. “It’s a totally different sport. Bong-bong, it’s done. It’s not like (football, where fans scream), ‘Ahhh!’ You can’t do that. The culture thing makes it feel like this is not a thing for us. But we always have the excitement inside of us. The challenge is (creating) the motivation to get you here (to a game). Once you get here, you will love it.”
For Illinois, it’s just the start of a larger plan. The Illini would like to grow an international fan base.
“We want to be the Big Ten team of Asia,” said Brad Wurthman, associate athletic director of marketing and fan development. “So that’s a first step for us.”
He and Lu, who prefer to go by David and Bruce, respectively, on campus, said their families and friends in China listen to their broadcast of the games. A study earlier this year showed that football’s popularity growth is largest in Russia and China, with a jump from 1.7 percent to 7.9 percent of the Chinese population expressing an interest in the NFL, meaning that 31 million more people began paying attention to the sport between 2013 and 2014.
For now, Illinois is hoping to encourage a new fan base on campus to come out to games, where the student section and the rest of the stadium are rarely full. The Illini also plan to implement Mandarin broadcasts for volleyball and basketball games, both popular sports in China.
“Our Mandarin broadcasts are one of many ways that we are actively reaching out to our student population,” athletic director Mike Thomas said. “For the last three years our Football 101 clinics have built bridges with our international students, which is a great way for these Illini to learn about football and the role it plays in the culture on a Big Ten campus.”
The Illini athletic department, along with the Chinese Students and Scholars Association, hosted a Football 101 event earlier this season to help international students become fans of the game.
He and Lu became fans as exchange students in high school — He in Oklahoma and Lu in Kansas City — especially Lu.
“I was a huge sports fan before then and it’s gotten even bigger,” Lu said. “This is just a really fun sport for me to watch.”
He marveled at the way American families attend sporting events and communities became invested in their local teams.
“Even high school basketball, parents surrounded the court,” He said. “Their sisters and brothers and whole family are there. It’s different. It’s why America is so good at sports. They have family getting involved in it. I like that concept.”
At Illinois, they say that they have enjoyed attending sporting events and hope other Chinese students will do the same.
“I was in the student section,” He said of his first game. “I was dancing with them. I don’t know how to do that, but I do it.”
Lu said he spent his first game as a freshman explaining the sport to the fellow Chinese students who attended with him.
“I’ve met people at the game before and become friends,” Lu said. “It’s a really cool way to experience the school.”
Lu and He were selected for the broadcasting jobs through the Chinese Student and Scholars Association, which emailed students seeking candidates.
But they aren’t a typical play-by-play duo. Typically, He asks Lu questions about the rules and Lu, a true student of the game, explains them. They also take questions from Chinese fans and answer them on the air. He said he “brings the excitement,” which is evident watching him bounce around their small broadcast table during the game.
“(We) don’t have to talk a lot on detail about skill set and technique,” He said. “Just share excitement and the audience can feel it. That’s who I am.”
The juniors said they would like to go into careers that involve sports. He, the son of engineer parents, is a sports management major and runs an e-commerce business in his “spare time.” Lu, whose mom is a radiologist and dad works for a bank in China, said he’s like to get a job with a sports website.
One Chinese student at Illinois said he has enjoyed listening to Lu and He.
“We traveled across the ocean to study,” said Steven Shi, a sophomore and a member of the CSSA. “We definitely want to be part of campus culture and American culture. We really want to participate in it.”
Lu and He are trying to make that easier.
Twitter @sryantribune
