BANG! The Ashland University Eagles football team scores and all residents of Ashland County are immediately aware.

Bill Goldring, director of athletics at AU, decided that the football games were missing something.

“I was trying to think, ‘is there any element that can make it more exciting?'” Goldring said.

A couple of thoughts came to mind, such as fireworks and a cannon. Losing five straight home games with fireworks led Goldring to search for a cannon.

“I didn’t know anybody with cannons, but I knew a lot of people in town, so I put out an SOS to anyone who might know someone who had a cannon and was willing to fire it off,” Goldring said.

A member of the Gridiron Club found a group that would be willing to fire their cannon during Ashland home football games.

The willing group turned out to be men who reenact Civil War battles. These men were so eager to be involved that they wanted to be as authentic as possible, Goldring said.

“The funny story about that is, they asked if they could wear their Civil War outfits to the game,” Goldring said. “I told them, ‘No, that’ll be ok, typical clothes would be fine, purple and gold if you have it’.”

The cannon will stay relatively inexpensive unless the Eagles start running up the score. In between scores, the Civil War volunteers load the cannon with gunpowder in preparation for the next Eagle touchdown, field goal or victory. Each shot costs $7, considering only gunpowder is used when firing off the cannon.

Looking at the cannon from the perspective of a student that lives in the Fraternity Circle, sophomore Thoren Lindsey had other thoughts.

“It is unnecessarily loud and should not be pointed towards residential housing,” Lindsey said. “It makes it extremely difficult to study and impossible to take Saturday afternoon naps.”

Whether you are for the cannon or against it, as long as you are in Ashland County you will know when the AU football team scores.