By Harry Minium
The National Guard howitzer cannon, which has become a beloved tradition at Old Dominion home football games, will fire again S.B. Ballard Stadium Saturday night when the Monarchs host East Carolina.
The howitzer has been a mainstay at ODU games dating back to the first season in 2009, and with the exception of the period of federal sequestration, has fired at nearly every home game.
The howitzer was missing when ODU played its first game against Norfolk State on Aug. 31. The stadium had just undergone a $67.5 million renovation and wasn’t fully turned over to ODU until the day before the game, so there wasn’t time to see if the howitzer would fit given that the footprint of the stadium changed.
Greg Smith, the associate athletic director for facilities, worked with the National Guard to bring the howitzer into the stadium. It will be positioned about where it was positioned last year, just north of the East Side.
The National Guard Howitzer will be positioned just north of the East Side of S.B. Ballard Stadium.
No one knew whether the cannon would fit before the National Guard wheeled it into the stadium last Thursday.
“We didn’t know whether we could get it in there,” Smith said. “It’s 21 feet long and its width at the base is six feet. It’s a big gun.
“But we put it on a corner of the stadium that’s a dead end.”
The cannon placement was discussed and approved at Monday's football game management staff meeting, Smith said.
The National Guard uses the cannon as a recruiting tool. It was fired at William and Mary earlier this season and will be fired Saturday at Norfolk State.
ODU ROTC members firing a howitzer at S.B. Ballard Stadium.
Cannons generally are only used at football games by military schools, but ODU decided early on that firing a howitzer would pay homage to the large military presence in Hampton Roads, and to the 25 percent of its students affiliated with the military.
ODU is marking the 50th anniversary of its ROTC program, which was founded in September of 1969. ODU is also hosting a group from the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth Saturday night.
“That’s why we really wanted the howitzer in the stadium for this game,” Smith said.
It will be fired twice Saturday night, once just before kickoff and a second time at the end of the first half.
When I asked Smith who was going to fire the gun for the first time at the new stadium, he said he didn't know and added that he'd fired it before.
He then asked me if I’d like to do it. I said yes before he completed the question.
Smith assures me that the National Guard and ODU ROTC will make sure that I fire the gun safely. But just in case, I’ve been watching YouTube videos of the 119, 105 mm Howitzer, which is what I’ll be firing Saturday night.
YouTube video of American soldiers firing a howitzer in Slovenia
And I might talk to ODU offensive lineman James Fagan, who is a member of the National Guard and is part of a howitzer crew.
Contact Minium: hminium@odu.edu