“He was a ‘frequent fixture’ at all types of sporting games and activities in the Dayton area. Andre was DPS’s (Dayton Public Schools) No. 1 fan. He was frequently in attendance at the Dayton Flyers games. Andre’s final gesture was the “fist bump” that he gave to his brother before saying goodbye.”
UD fans remember Owings well and paid tribute to him on social media Thursday.
“Andre was and is a great part of the UD football tradition,” one fan wrote. “May he rest in peace.”
“Andre would always stop by our tailgate before the game,” Mike Monnier wrote. “He would grab a hot dog and a cold drink just like one of family.”
“Andre is forever a legend in Dayton,” Adam Gutheil wrote. “Rest in peace to a true king.”
Bucky Albers first wrote about Owings in 1988 in a Dayton Daily News column headlined, “Andre is a giant Dayton fan.”
“If you’ve seen a football game at Welcome Stadium in recent years, you’ve seen him running up and down the track in front of the west grandstand,” Albers wrote. “Cape flapping in the breeze, he is Superman taxiing down the runway.
“You can’t miss Andre. His act is unique. He is neither bird nor plane. Perhaps he is best described as an unidentified flying object. No matter. He has become as much in evidence at University of Dayton games as Rudy, the Flyer mascot. Andre Owings is a devout sports fan who apparently has too much nervous energy to limit his participation to an occasional cheer.”
In 2000, Dayton Daily News columnist Tom Archdeacon wrote about Owings being a constant presence at University of Dayton football games.
“He’s got all kinds of special routines out here,” Jim Wheeler, head of Welcome Stadium concessions, said in 2000. “During the national anthem, he might help direct the band. He might join the cheerleaders on the field and there’s been times right after games, when he’s come up to the press box, picked up the PA microphone and told the crowd in that deep voice of his, ‘Thank you for coming. Drive safely on the way home.’”
Bucky Albers also wrote about Andre Owings in 1988. pic.twitter.com/xXvlHGydg1
— David Jablonski (@DavidPJablonski) August 15, 2024
Owings often attended UD soccer and volleyball games, Dayton Public Schools football games, basketball games at his alma mater, Colonel White, before it closed in 2008 and games at various baseball and softball diamonds throughout Dayton.
“Andre’s just been a fixture down here though the years,” then UD football coach Mike Kelly said. “I don’t know why, don’t know how or when — I’ve never really talked to him — but I’d feel kind of naked out there on the sidelines without him.”
Owings was a walking encyclopedia for the teams he loved because he studied them.
“I get up at noon and read the newspaper — the sports section,” he told Archdeacon in 2000.
According to his obituary, Owings spent his final months at the Sienna Woods Skilled Nursing Facility. He was preceded in death by his father and mother, George Owings Sr. and Octavia Mitchell Owings, and brother George Owings Jr.
Owings is “survived by his brother, Richard (Vermelle) Owings Sr.; sister: Sarah Owings; nephews, Kenneth (Sjoukie) Washington Sr. and Richard Owings Jr.; niece, Katina Hill; 7 grand nieces; 4 grand nephews; 2 great grandnieces; 2 great grand nephews; aunt, Catherine Curry; a host of cousins and friends.”
A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. Monday at the House of Wheat Funeral Home in Dayton. Visitation will be held from 9-11 a.m., and the family will receive friends from 10-11 a.m.
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