Yesterday, the 102nd annual Beat Michigan Week began not only with pigskin propaganda, but also with helping hands.
The weeks events are not only designed to drum out school spirit, but to raise awareness for pancreatic cancer.
Tau Beta Pi hosted the 4th annual Beat Michigan 5K race to raise money for Neighborhood Services, Inc. and a local food pantry.
Three hundred and eighty runners battled windy conditions with Matt Buzek winning the race with a time of 15:34.
Students also proved that they bleed scarlet (but not gray, because that would be a sign of some terrible disease) not just on gameday, but anytime there is a worthy cause. The Beat Michigan Blood Drive started Sunday and will continue through Friday.
The third event on Sunday was the 3rd Annual Buckeyes Series of Poker, signaled the start of a philanthropic competition between Ohio State’s chapter of Sigma Alpha Mu, and Michigan’s chapter of the same fraternity. Sophomore in geography Andrew Gotlieb is the philanthropy chair of OSU’s Sigma Alpha Mu chapter. He said he is determined to beat Michigan, even though it is off the field.
“Basically what we’re doing is, we challenge the Sigma Alpha Mu chapter in Michigan to a week of philanthropy to see who can raise the most money for the American Red Cross,” Gotlieb said.
Although it is unknown how well Michigan fared yesterday, OSU is already off to a good start.
“We raised over $1,000 today,” Gotlieb said after the poker tournament. “Our goal is about $3,000 at the end of this week.”
Students paid $20 to play in the tournament, with the first prize winner of Sunday’s poker tournament taking home $300 in Best Buy gift certificates. Other runners-up also received prizes from Best Buy and Panini’s Bar and Grill.
The fraternity will be conducting events all week to raise money for the American Red Cross. On Monday and Thursday they will have a donation stand at 17th and Neil from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m., and free beverages will be available.
The annual pep rally, organized in conjunction with Undergraduate Student Government and Greek Life, will be held at 7 p.m. tonight at the Ohio Union. Players from the football team will be in attendance, and there will be free food, entertainment and prizes.
Tuesday events will bring out the kid in OSU fans. Fourth grade students from Barrington Elementary in Upper Arlington will be selling handmade Buckeye necklaces and raffle tickets. Items up for raffle include autographed jerseys and a football signed by Jim Tressel. All proceeds from this event will benefit the Stephanie Spielman Fund for Breast Cancer Research, and it will be held on the Oval from 10:30 a.m until 2p.m.
Running concurrently with the previous event will be “Throw one for the kids,” a football-throwing contest. Here students can also receive information about BuckeyeThon, the 14 hour dance marathon that benefits Children’s Hospital in Columbus.
In the evening a videogame tournament, featuring NBA Live and NCAA, will be held at 7 p.m. at the Sigma Alpha Mu house. A $5 donation is required to play, and gamers will be welcomed with pizza, pop, and Red Bull. Prizes will also be given out.
“We’re giving away free EA Sports video games to people who win that tournament,” Gotlieb said.
At the same time, the puck drops for men’s hockey vs. Michigan State at the Schottenstein Center, with the Ohio State Marching Band performing Script Ohio on the ice.
On Wednesday afternoon, OSU will try to secure a place in the Guinness Book of World Records by conducting the world’s largest pillow fight at 5 p.m. on the South Oval.
OSU first became interested in this record after a famous Buckeye made a suggestion.
“It was an idea presented by Bill Hall for student organizations to do this,” said Alicia Notestone, the sub-committee sub-chair of the pillow fight. “Other schools had been trying to do it.”
OSU made their first attempt at the record last year, but had a poor turnout.
“Last year it was less than 1000 (people), due to the fact that it rained,” Notestone said. The event will be held rain or shine. In case of rain. Jesse Owens South will be the rain location.
To beat the current record, she said 4,000 students are needed, and the pillow fight could last for a few minutes.
“To qualify for the world record, it has to be one minute,” Notestone said. “We may even shoot for up to five minutes and see how long we can get it to prevent another school from breaking our record.”
The event will have live entertainment from the CD101 radio station, and items such as Koozies, T-shirts, cups and key chains will be handed out.
A special guest will also be in attendance to kick things off.
“We are hoping, if he’s feeling up to it, that Bill Hall will be the person to start the fight,” Notestone said.
Pillows used for the fight must be commercially available bed pillows. Other pillows, such as sofa cushions, will not be allowed.
Although Notestone says no students were injured last year, medics will be on duty at the event, per Guinness’ rules.
Thursday brings out wing lovers, and students that are willing to risk hypothermia in the murky depths of Mirror Lake. The Wing the Wolverines competition will start at 6:30 p.m. in the Ohio Union. This free event includes two contests. The first of the two competitions will be the Ultimate Fan Competition.
“The Ultimate Fan Competition is pretty much open to everyone,” said Billy Hroncich, the sub-committee sub-chair of Wing the Wolverines. “Everyone will be taken into consideration and we will narrow it down to five semi-finalists. They get 30 seconds to show the crowd why they’re the ultimate fan at Ohio State.”
In the second competition, students will try to be the first eat 25 wings. Ten people will be chosen at random for that event.
“We will have prizes for the semi-finalists, and winners in both competitions will receive prizes,” said Hroncich.
Prizes include Buckeye necklaces, gift certificates from Kroger, $20 travel vouchers from STA Travel and other donations received.
According to Hroncich, about 6,500 wings were donated this year from five different wing vendors.
Committee chair Chris McCarthy said that the wings will be provided by Champs, Quaker Stake & Lube, BW3’s, The Pad (a new pizza place through campus dining services) and Damon’s.
All the students that eat the wings will be encouraged to cast their vote for the best wings on campus.
“There will be voting on which vendor has the best tasting wings,” McCarthy said. “I think every year Quaker Stake has won.”
Students that want to participate should bring their BuckIDs to the event, although they are not mandatory to have. To sign up for the event, they should e-mail or they can sign up from 6 p.m. until the doors open at 6:30 p.m. in the union outside of the east ballroom.
Radio station CD101 is going to be hosting the event, and Brutus the Buckeye and Buckeye man will be around to do the judging for the ultimate fan competition.
Hroncich said the competitions will be held 45 minutes to an hour apart, “so people who show up early won’t be bored, and people who show up late won’t be bored as well.”
OSU’s infamous Mirror Lake jumper-inners can attend a pre-game party on Thursday night before they waddle through the swampy lake. For two hours, starting at 8p.m., all you-can-eat pizza and all-you-can-drink beer will be available at Panini’s Bar and Grill (for the 18-21 set, the beer will be replaced with soda). The proceeds of the night will also be donated to the American Red Cross, and further help Sigma Alpha Mau in their fight against Michigan’s chapter.
Students hungry for some gridiron action will get an appetizer of flag football at Lincoln Tower’s turf fields. The Twilight flag football tournament will begin, rain or shine, at 6:30 pm and will be single elimination, bracket-style.
“We’re going to play the tournament single eliminat
ion until we have a champion, so it could go until the wee hours of the morning,” said Chris McCarthy.
Teams can register in advance by e-mailing Katie Fadley at or by signing up on-site at 6:00 pm at the field. Participants must bring their BuckID to register.
Ending the week’s festivities on Saturday will be the free pancake breakfast event, titled “Bill’s breakfast for the big game.”
“They used to throw a big pancake breakfast for the game in years past but it died out for a few years,” McCarthy said, “but we’re bringing it back.”
The free breakfast is open for all students, faculty and staff. The food will be sponsored by Bob Evans, and coffee will be provided by Starbucks. McCarthy said Bill Hall will also be in attendance.
Although the week is full of fun, the serious side cannot be ignored. Purple ribbons and bracelets will be worn around campus for pancreatic cancer.
“The whole week is focused around pancreatic cancer awareness. That is the form of cancer that Bill Hall has and Jim Tressel’s mother passed away from,” McCarthy said.
Coordinating and carrying out the events might have been a time-consuming and difficult task for McCarthy and his sub-committee members, but seeing Beat Michigan Week carried out makes it all worth it.
“It’s been a lot of work but also a lot of fun,” McCarthy said. “It hasn’t gone perfectly smooth, there’s been ups and downs, but I can’t wait for all the events to finally happen.”
