Evan Royster was hanging out with his roommate Josh Matzkin when he had one of his first introductions to the musical group Blue Oyster Cult.

"[Josh] started singing. ... I didn't really get it because I don't know any of their music," Royster said.

His unfamiliarity with the Blue Oyster Cult, a 1970s rock band mimicked on Saturday Night Live, didn't stop him from joining a Facebook group named after the Penn State running back.

Thomas Smith (junior-mechanical engineering) formed the group last season when Royster first began to earn chunks of yardage and about 60 or 70 members joined. The group was cast in the public's eye after the Oregon State game when students painted a "Blue Royster Cult" sign that decorated the wall in front of the student section.

By Sunday evening, the Blue Royster Cult had 82 members. By Monday afternoon, 161 fans had joined, and the number was increasing by the minute.

"We saw he was an explosive player who was probably going to be the future of the running back position," said Todd Rasey (senior-civil engineering), a friend of the group's creator.

Royster is listed as "the king" of the group. Another officer, Stephanie Huntsman, modified the Blue Oyster Cult's song "Burnin' for You" to "Burning for 22," and Mitchell Rukat, another officer, "fears the reaper," a reference to the band's 1972 hit "(Don't Fear) The Reaper."

The reason for the group's genesis hasn't heard the music.

"I had no idea," Royster said.

Rasey couldn't believe it, noting a parody on a 2000 episode of Saturday Night Live. Actor Christopher Walken plays fictional producer Bruce Dickinson, who is supervising the studio recording of "Don't Fear the Reaper."

Halfway through the recording, the band stops because of frustration with an excessively loud cowbell player portrayed by Will Ferrell. Dickinson insists he's "gotta have cowbell," and the band responded in kind by playing a cowbell onstage.

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Rasey said "it blows my mind" that Royster never heard of the group.

"Most people, if they'd never heard the band, they've seen the SNL skit," Rasey said.

The skit vaguely jogged Royster's memory.

"I know they sing a song about a cowbell," he said.

Rasey said he hasn't brought up the group with Royster during limited interaction. Over the summer, Rasey was golfing on the back nine at the White Course.

Royster and Chris Hogan, a lacrosse player, were also golfing. Rasey caught up with the pair for the final two-and-a-half holes but didn't mention the group.

"I didn't want to be the crazy fan pestering him," Rasey said.

As Rasey relaxed at the HUB-Robeson Center on Monday afternoon, he said he wasn't aware of who was behind the sign at Saturday's game.

But he did have another plan: emblazoning golf polo shirts with "Blue Royster Cult."