Less than a week after coming out, Michael Sam was due to be honored along with the team at a home basketball game .

How would students and alumni react to an openly gay athlete, even after he had led the football team to the Cotton Bowl title? And what if the vociferously anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church made good on its threat to protest?

Sam's fellow Missouri students took action. Hundreds of students formed a human corridor to protest-proof the campus -- an initiative they called "Stand With Sam."

The protesters never did show up. But inside the arena, Sam received a standing ovation.