Obama Draws Big Crowd at U of Md.

Feb 11, 2008 — -- For most college students, Monday means back to the daily grind of classes and note taking, but for thousands at the University of Maryland at College Park, it meant skipping class.

Word got out over the weekend that presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., was coming to campus for a mid-afternoon rally. That was all the excuse some needed to trade in their class time for some political time.

"This is kind of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, you can go to class anytime," senior Andrew Schaefer, a journalism major, said.

Freshman computer engineering major Kevin Roak agreed. "It's not every day you get to see a presidential candidate, and I really like what [Obama] stands for, so it was worth it."

A group of government majors told ABC News that one of their professors even canceled class so that students could attend the event.

Originally, the event was scheduled to be in the university's athletic center, the cavernous Cole Field House, which can accommodate nearly 15,000 people. But when word spread through Facebook invites and group announcements, the event was switched to Comcast Center, which can hold 18,000.

As people filed in to the standing room only Comcast Center, Obama campaign officials dolled out blue and red signs to the crowd reading, "Change We Can Believe In" and "Stand For Change." Many students, showing off their Maryland red school colors, also brought their own homemade signs that read, "Barack My World" and "Barack Is My Homeboy."

The energy inside the stadium was just as intense as a Maryland vs. Duke basketball game, complete with the wave, started by a small group of students behind the stage, chants of "O-BA-MA," and boos rang out when the crowd realized yet another guest speaker — not yet Obama himself — was approaching the stage.

Several speakers got up on stage to rally the troops into excitement, including Maryland's Attorney General Doug Gansler and Chris Willhelm of Students for Barack Obama at the University of Maryland.