Freshman-Sophomore rivalry highlight of Traditions Day

Students try to roll the cage ball in the opposing team's endzone in one of the Freshmen-Sophomore rivalry events. Photos by Jonathan Pesch

If nothing else can be said about WPI, it can be said that it has a strong sense of tradition. On days such as Homecoming, Winter Carnival, Founders Day, Quadfest, and Traditions Day, students are given the opportunity to learn about the history and lore of their school. Though this theme is everyday, there is one event that is about the school's traditions exclusively. This is Traditions Day.

This year, Traditions Day fell on Thursday, April 12. On Wednesday, the Student Alumni Society led all willing students on the annual Candle Walk through campus, displaying their school spirit all the while by chanting the Alma Mater, or mouthing something close to the words, and the WPI fight song. This tour of campus brought students past Alumni Gym, the Seal, Sanford Riley Hall, and other various points of interest in the school's history.

As the sun of a new Traditions Day rose upon the campus, the focus of the day became the annual competition events for the Freshman-Sophomore Rivalry. For the first time, the Rivalry Point was decided by a "best two out of three" style series of events. The classes competed in the Pennant Rush, Cage Ball, and WPI Jeopardy.

In the torrent of wind and rain, the mighty and dedicated combatants of the two classes gathered on the soaked turf for the coming test of strength and endurance. When the teams assembled in their opposing endzone's, the more numerous sophomores had a definite advantage over the five freshmen combatants. To even the score, the freshman ranks were swelled with SAS members of the junior class. When the mediator gave the signal, the wet, cold, miserable, yet dedicated participants careened toward the middle to grab and return as many pennants as possible. The rules require taking only one pennant at a time. After several minutes, an extensive scrabble for the last pennant, and a lot of soaking, the sophomores emerged victorious with 62 of the one-hundred pennants.

Despite what the competitors had just endured, the two teams re-assembled to compete in the second event, Cage Ball. The cage ball, a ball as high as a normal man, was set on the "P" at center field and all team members put one hand on it to await the start. The count began "1, 2, 2.56, 3," and both sides began a frantic push to drive the ball to the opposing endzone. The sophomore team, being on average several inches taller than the freshmen members, quickly rolled the ball over the other team and into the air. This began a blitzkrieg against the freshman that lead to a quick victory for the class of 2003.

The highlight of the third event, Jeopardy, was not the event itself, but the Alma Mater contest between rounds. Though the sophomores also won Jeopardy, the most memorable part of the night was when the Skull inductees revealed the goat after their turn in the contest. The goat had been shown several times that day by the sophomore class in an attempt spread the tradition around, and was finally passed on to the Junior class.

With the sun long since set on Traditions Day, the sophomores stood with a perfect record on the day. Through the events that transpired, the Rivalry stands in a 2-2 tie going into the final event at Quadfest.