Breakaway welcomed speaker Sadie Robertson Huff at Reed Arena on Tuesday, Sept. 26, with a crowd of about 7,000, according to an email from Breakaway strategic partnerships lead Kirsten Chubb.
Last year, roughly 8,300 people flocked to Kyle Field to hear Huff speak, the largest crowd since 2016. To accommodate the crowd this year, the Breakaway team opened up the entire Reed Arena with a circular stage, a change from normal Tuesday nights that typically only opened four sections.
Huff is best known for her appearance on Duck Dynasty as the daughter of Willie Robertson and granddaughter of Phil Robertson. Years after the show’s premiere, Sadie has grown her social media presence as a Christian leader, written several books and hosts her own podcast, “WOAH, That’s Good.”
Crowds of people arrived at Reed Arena early Tuesday evening, so they could get front-row seats to hear Robertson speak. Freshmen Emily Kain and Eliza Rozacky said they arrived at the parking lot almost two hours before the doors opened. They said they both grew up watching Sadie on Duck Dynasty.
“It feels like I grew up with her, and she faced the trials of life, so I know that I can too,” Rozacky said. “She’s just such a wonderful example of leadership.”
Three students from the University of Texas, Cora Moore, Sheridan Smith and Emmaline Black, said they drove from Austin after their classes to hear Robertson speak.
“She’s somebody we’ve all grown up with and looked up to in a lot of ways,” Moore said. “This was an opportunity to see [her] for free.”
Accounting junior James Klein, a member of Breakaway’s staff, said it was difficult keeping the secret to himself that Huff was speaking.
“It was hard to keep it from people the first few days, [but] they found out because so many people connect and love [Huff],” Klein said.
Breakaway is a bible study that meets every Tuesday at 9 p.m. at Reed Arena to help any college student take their first or next step with Jesus, according to its Instagram.
“This isn’t just about the numbers or the crowd, but Sadie is a voice that can lead a lot of people to Jesus tonight,” Breakaway strategic partnerships lead Kirsten Chubb said.
Huff spoke to the crowd for 45 minutes, telling the story of how people can know who they are once they know what God says about them.
This was a message she was resharing after the first time she spoke it at the Passion Conference in 2022, a nationwide Christian conference held for adults. She said that although she had prepared a different message, she felt called to share this specific message.
Following former Breakaway executive director Timothy Ateek’s departure in 2022, Brian McCormack stepped up to take the position in February.
“There’s a very peculiar trust God has put in [Huff], a very peculiar power to gather people from this generation,” McCormack said. “Things were so beautiful last year at Kyle Field that when those relationships allowed her to come back, we wanted to do anything to make that happen.”
