Battle begins: Eleanor Roosevelt College students cheer on their college on their way to victory and the Golden Shoe.
Eleanor Roosevelt College took the Golden Shoe home to its new campus after beating out the five other colleges in an afternoon of cheers and competition during this yearís annual Unolympics.
“”Itís really exciting,”” Roosevelt junior TJ Tallie said. “”Itís something that weíve always wanted to have and it feels exceptionally sweet now that we have a brand-new campus and we really feel like we have respect as a college.””
Sixth College, which had its first shot at winning the shoe in the 2002 Unolympics, came just behind Roosevelt.
Golden glory: The Golden Shoe is presented to Eleanor Roosevelt College to keep for the 2003-04 academic year. ERC last won the shoe in 1999.
The event, a UCSD tradition held during Welcome Week of every school year, brought together mostly freshmen to compete in several events, including best entrance, best cheer, a bat relay, a water balloon relay and a tug-of-war.
“”It was fantastic,”” said Scott Berndes, sports club director for UCSD recreation and MC of the event. “”I thought there was more school spirit and creativity than Iíve seen in the past, and everybody had a good time.””
Students participating in the event started by partaking in pre-Unolympic rallies on their respective campuses before flooding RIMAC Field with chants of “”We want the shoe.”” The first criteria judged was the entrance by each college presenting their respective theme to the jury with dancing and cheering, with themes ranging from a jungle theme for John Muir College to a í50s theme for Thurgood Marshall College to a Top Gun theme for ERC.
Sixth College, which performed to the theme of Ghostbusters with zombie-like costumes and one student emerging from a coffin, won best entrance, followed by Marshall, which performed to songs from “”Grease.””
Sixth College kept the lead by winning the cheer, with one student leader prompting the cheers by yelling, “”Two times three is Ö? How many sides to a hexagonÖWhat sounds likeÖ?”” and more questions to which the crowd of Sixth College students shouted “”Six”” in reply. ERC came in second, chanting “”when everything is said and done, ERC will be top gun.””
Sixth College still led after the third event, the bat relay, in which ERC narrowly beat Sixth College.
The competition remained fierce during the water balloon relay, with Revelle College winning the race followed by Earl Warren College, but ERC in third place beat out fifth-place Sixth College bringing the two frontrunners to a 10-point difference, with Sixth still in the lead.
The tug-of-war, which counted for double points, brought the competition to a close with several tough matches. Judges disqualified Muir in its first match against ERC for having one too many players on the field. Sixth College supported Muirís cause with cries of “”rematch”” until they were reinstated a few minutes later and lost to ERC in the rematch. By the end of the contest, ERC came out on top with 300 points, followed by Sixth College with 270, Warren with 130, Marshall with 170, Revelle with 160 and Muir with 130.
“”For those of us that are seniors, we lost the shoe our freshman year so to get it back our senior year was always our goal,”” ERC senior and resident advisor Crystal Fecht said. “”It was really cool to get it back before we graduated.””
ERC first won the Golden Shoe in 1989, when the college was still named Fifth College. It won the shoe again in 1992 and for the last time in 1999.
Revelle College took the shoe last year.
“”This really adds a lot to our self confidence,”” ERC senior senator Jordan Rosenfeld said.
