In a dual effort to promote college spirit and increase the presence of UCSD’s men and women’s basketball teams, a noon rally was held at Price Center on Jan. 30 as a continuation of Spirit Week activities sponsored by the A.S. Triton Tide.
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A sparse lunchtime crowd of 200, fragmented mainly amongst the indifferent, watched as activities ranged from an introduction of UCSD’s basketball teams to the traditional body-painting contest between the six colleges.
“”We could use some attention Ö hopefully our bodies will do just that,”” freshman guard Nate Chandra said before the rally.
Despite the low turnout, A.S. Commissioner of Athletics Jordan Cross remained optimistic about the advantages of the event.
“”[This event] is mutually beneficial; it publicizes the student athletes Ö[it] gets people excited about tradition and competition and gets them to the game,”” Cross said.
“”People weren’t getting up and walking out, so that’s always a good thing.””
As the highlight of the rally, the trademark body-painting contest between UCSD’s six colleges garnered most of the crowd’s attention. The six men’s basketball players who volunteered to be human canvasses were all smiles as, to the tune of whistles and cat-calls from the female audience, stripped down to their shorts and were transformed into blue and yellow ëspirit’ murals. Two students from each college, except for Earl Warren College, which was a no-show, had three minutes to paint their respective players and score points for the Spirit Night competition.
“”It was a bit messy, certainly the first time I’ve ever had my body painted, but anything to draw attention to our program is a good thing,”” said freshman guard Robby Peters, who represented Revelle College.
A panel of five women’s basketball players selected freshman guard Adam Reinking and Thurgood Marshall College as the winner of the contest, followed by Sixth, Eleanor Roosevelt, John Muir, and Revelle Colleges, in descending order.
In stark contrast to the fervor of body-painting, the introduction of the men’s and women’s basketball teams was marked only with a few random claps from an apathetic crowd interested more in cheering on their respective colleges.
“”I’m here to support college and UCSD pride,”” said Muir sophomore Jill Lindblad, who later admitted she had only attended a “”half game”” of UCSD basketball this season.
Without the typical scattering of flyers that usually coincides with any campus event, the low attendance might have been attributed more to a lack of awareness than indifference.
“”I don’t think anybody knew it was happening; there really wasn’t much advertisement for this, and it really didn’t seem that organized,”” senior Misha Villa-Popescu said.
Still, Associate Athletic Director Ken Grosse noted the increasing popularity of the rally and Triton Athletics in general. “”It takes patience to get the full effect in the face of apathy, but its gotten better and better every year.””
