Tickets went on sale Thursday for Mercer University’s first intercollegiate college football season since 1941. Athletics were suspended on campus for World War II, and football was forgotten until 2010 when trustees voted to reinstate the sport.

For $50 or $75 you can pay to see football games a year from now played by a team that isn’t quite formed in a stadium that isn’t quite built. But head coach Bobby Lamb says everything is on track for Mercer’s inaugural 2013 Pioneer League season.

“My dream is for every seat to be filled and for people to be on the outside begging to get in,” Lamb said.

Elsewhere in Georgia, Berry College and Reinhardt University are also starting up new football programs, though only Mercer will compete in Division I. Lamb says Georgia may now be able to keep more of its high school players in state.

“We’ve been under-populated for many years [in terms of] having universities for our young men to go and participate on the football field," Lamb said. "So I think we’re just catching up with the numbers.”

Lamb and his staff have recruited 98 freshmen who will join seven tryout players for their first team meeting on Monday.

Tags: football, Mercer University, Adam Ragusea, Bobby Lamb