Per GoBearcats:
The Cotton Bowl festivities come to a head for Cincinnati fans on Friday with a special Huddle Up Fest at AT&T Stadium’s East Plaza at 12 p.m.
The band, cheerleaders, dance team and Bearcat will take center stage at the top of the hour, and the 30-minute event includes alumni headliners Ian Happ, Jim Herman, Jordan Thompson and Kevin Youkilis.
Happ (2013-15) was a baseball All-American and AAC Player of the Year at UC before becoming the ninth-overall pick of the 2015 MLB Draft. He completed his fifth season with the Chicago Cubs, hitting a career-high 25 home runs.
Herman (1996-00) represented his hometown Bearcats men’s golf team and has since earned three PGA Tour wins while earning a spot in the 2021 Masters Tournament. At UC, he produced a top-five career scoring average to go with a school-record four wins.
Jordan Thompson (2015-19) captured the nation while starring for Team USA Volleyball in its gold-medal Olympic run this summer. She earned First-Team All-America honors as a senior and finished seventh in NCAA history for kills. She also led the nation in kills, points, kills per set and points per set while becoming the sixth-ever to record 50 kills in a single match.
Kevin Youkilis (1998-01) was iconic for the Boston Red Sox during his 10-year MLB career, helping them to two World Series titles. As a Bearcat baseball player for his hometown team, he was an All-American each of his last two seasons and broke the school’s career records for home runs, walks, slugging percentage and on-base percentage among many other feats.
No. 4 Cincinnati kicks off with No. 1 Alabama at 2:30 p.m. on Friday.
