Fort Campbell public affairs estimates that 2,000 people attended Tuesday night's listening session at the Family Resource Center, with hundreds turned away after the crowd swell overflowed at the FRC, Cole Park and Wilson Theater. With military cuts expected across the nation within the next few years, the session was utilized to present arguments in support of retaining Fort Campbell at its current level or with minimal cuts.
The event, which included presentations from local, state and national political leaders and military figures, also had a familiar face on the dais – Austin Peay Athletics Director Derek van der Merwe. With the influx of speakers turning the session into a five-hour marathon, van der Merwe kept it brief but to the point – that Fort Campbell is a vital, integral part of the Clarksville community, one that provides it with a sense of pride and honor.
Opening and closing his remarks with 'Let's Go Peay', van der Merwe told his story from an outsiders perspective – since moving from Michigan in Summer 2013 to take over the athletics department, he's seen the galvanizing effect Fort Campbell has in Clarksville.
"Walking around the community and in my neighborhood, I began to notice license plate after license plate with a little purple heart," van der Merwe said. "I quickly learned from going to community events that there's a great sense of community and obligation that these people have for each other."
Now in his second year as athletics director, van der Merwe told the story of Austin Peay's camouflage uniforms, worn during the Nov. 8, 2014 Homecoming contest against Tennessee State – how one of his neighbors, Peter Reyman, a retired military man who achieved the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and who now works as a civilian at Fort Campbell, suggested the idea of putting the Fort Campbell unit nicknames on the back of the jerseys, finding out that the NCAA's rules prohibited the gesture, how the football team and department decided that accepting the penalty (one lost timeout for each quarter the jersey was worn) paled in comparison to the sacrifices by the units they represented.
van der Merwe also mentioned the subsequent jersey auction, which netted more than $8,000 for the Wounded Warrior Project. He mentioned the National Football Foundation's story on the event, quoting the opening line: 'When Austin Peay took the field for the Homecoming game against Tennessee State on Nov. 8, they were playing for more than themselves and the fans in the stands. They were playing for their neighbors: Fort Campbell.'
"I wanted to do something that helps educate our student-athletes on the relationship between Fort Campbell and Austin Peay," he said. "You should have seen the players running on and off the field to make sure time wasn't an issue in the game. General Mark Stammer, the Senior Commander of the 101st Airborne Division, Air Assault and Fort Campbell, came into the locker room before the game and went from jersey to jersey, picking them up and saying, 'Do you know what this means to our community?' I think this lesson was learned."
