Amidst Pitt men’s basketball’s first 20-win season in seven years, plenty of factors stand out. Transfers Blake Hinson and Jamarius Burton are both top 15 in the ACC in points per game. The Panthers have gone on three separate five-game win streaks, which include wins over ranked Virginia, Miami and Northwestern. But a factor that is heard rather than seen takes place at the Petersen Events Center, where Pitt is 13-3.
“It really started around 2000, 2001 as a kind of organic student-led organization, sort of a classic Pitt move,” said Chris Peak, publisher at Panther-Lair.com. “The university tried to counter it in the early years and create their own sponsored by Aeropostale student section, which died almost immediately.”
That’s where the Oakland Zoo was born, a completely student-run cheering section without immediate ties to the university. Like Chris describes, the school tried to implement a sponsor into this new cheering section phenomena called the “Aero-Zone,” but it failed to catch on as the Oakland Zoo grew immensely.
The meteoric rise was thanks to a multitude of factors. Two students, Matt Cohen and Zack Hale, decided that in 2001, in a game against Syracuse, that the Pitt student section was too calm. Add on the basketball team’s switch in arenas to the Petersen Events Center in 2002, a stadium built with the student section occupying the first ten or more rows surrounding the court, and the Zoo’s impact was palpable.
“A couple of guys said, ‘we need to be louder at games’ and then so they start making a scene and then a few other students [joined],” said Peak. “So [more students] would say, hey, that looks like fun, so they would jump in and it just grew from there.”
From wearing “Oakland Zoo” designed T-shirts, to growing that section to over 1500 fans per game, the Zoo, named after the city where Pitt’s campus rests, made a jaw-dropping impact. From 2001-2011, the Panthers won nearly 91 percent of their home games (174-18). At one point in that stretch, Pitt made the Elite Eight and on numerous occasions, ranked number one in the country. That decade, with the raucous environment it created, brought basketball to a city that lacked a pro team.
“I mean you could go all the way back to the [2000s] and those were the hardest tickets to get in the city,” said Noah Hiles, Pitt beat writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “That coincided with the beginning of the Penguins dynasty and the Steelers winning Super Bowls in the mid 2000s, that was the type of atmosphere that you expected every game.”
Even during the bad spells in the program, the student section found a way to show out, and it did so in a university-recognized capacity. The last six seasons of Pitt basketball before this year proved that mightily. Six straight seasons with a losing record including an 0-18 ACC record in 2018 ruined the mood behind attending Pitt basketball games, but didn’t bury the Zoo.
They continued running their organization with a self-deduced budget and active members ranging over 100, keeping some semblance of hype alive, which prepped fans for the Panthers rivalry game with West Virginia in the second game of the season. After over 20 years of its existence, the Oakland Zoo was represented by over 2000 strong, their first sellout and a sign that Pitt basketball and the Zoo were only making strides.
“We like to say it's chaos for 40 minutes, that's a pitch we made at the beginning of the season,” said Ryan Hogeboom, president of the Oakland Zoo. “You are going to have an impact on the game, that's the thing we sell, very few students sections are arranged in the way that we are.”
Hogeboom is one of the 2000-plus that was enthralled with the Zoo even before arriving in Pittsburgh. In fact, the now-junior grew up in Blacksburg, Virginia, as a massive Virginia Tech fan. The Hokies have a unique tradition of singing the song “Enter Sandman” at the beginning of each of their sporting events. This made Hogeboom intrigued in finding a city that brought that same fervor, and Pittsburgh peaked his interest.
“I did know about the Zoo because when you read the U.S. News and World Report’s blurb about Pitt, it’s listed pretty early on,” said Hogeboom. “It talks about the environment that they bring to the Pete.”
That notoriety was well-told back in the day. In 2007, ESPN’s “College Gameday” went there and just two seasons later, the Zoo was profiled in the Wall Street Journal. In 2013, USA Today ranked the Petersen Events Center as the nation’s second best game atmosphere arena. This grassroots, organic organization hasn’t changed that much from those early seasons too.
“On a typical gameday, we will show up three hours or so before the game and we have a tradition here at Pitt where we have newspapers where it shows all the rules, the starting lineup for Pitt, and promotes our socials and things like that,” said Hogeboom. “So we set up those and we'll set up our distraction elements.”
Hogeboom, a Pitt junior, also says the Oakland Zoo is a huge recruiting tool too, where the university strategically places recruits right in front of the Zoo, to experience how crazy the atmosphere can get. The level of fandom has been worth all the national attention and same with the Zoo’s recognition. Hogeboom says the number of newspapers they order in bulk before the year starts actually ran out, which is an ode to the influx of students that have shown up compared to expectations from year’s past.
“These students are the ones who brought the Oakland Zoo back that's really special and to see them playing a big role in helping the building have its first sellout since Zion Williamson played here in 2019 and selling out senior night against Syracuse,” said Hiles. “They're not buying all the tickets but they're the ones promoting it.”
On Saturday against Syracuse, that promotion will culminate in a sold out Petersen Events Center, and over 1,800 students in the Oakland Zoo. A feat that seemed unimaginable during the down days of Pitt basketball is now noticeable to fans and players alike.
“I mean man, the Oakland Zoo, you’re a part of the team, that was great,” says Pitt junior forward Blake Hinson. “I know how it feels on the opposite side of that, it was rocking.”
To Hogeboom, that recognition is exactly what he does it for, and speaking for the Zoo, exactly why students spend two hours of their day going crazy as a collective. So when nearly 2,000 students pack the “Pete” on Saturday, just know this season is no different from the craze that engulfed Pitt in the 2000s, and that’s all thanks to the Oakland Zoo.