A good year for Bison pride

Varsity sports teams represent a huge part of any university’s culture.

Our teams are a point of pride and represent us, just like the Jets or the Bombers represent Winnipeg. Our athletes are in the business of protecting our school’s pride. They spend their weekdays in class, at the library studying, and going through workouts, practices, and game-tape reviews.

As students, it is also up to us to defend our school’s name. We do so by running student groups, putting on great concerts (like Tiesto on Sept. 14), achieving good grades, and backing up our athletes.

We don’t just cheer for a team, we cheer for our team. We cheer for our school and we cheer for our fellow students. Other students travel from across the country to play the Bisons. Make no mistake – we are defending our campus’ culture at every game.

This upcoming year the Big Horns and Student Life plan on infusing our campus culture with some enthusiasm and an increased sense of pride. We are starting with the biggest pep rally we’ve ever held.

Pep rally

Almost every university with enviable campus culture has a great pep rally.

It’s an event that builds culture by bringing everyone together to celebrate the school community. There are some common qualities every great pep rally has, so let’s see if the U of M can pass the litmus test.

Every successful pep rally has energetic students and a top-notch stadium. It’s also important a school has talented sports teams. A big show with a campus cheer, , and cheerleaders are a must, too. Finally, there should be some kind of big game where we can rally behind our school.

Well, the good news is, we have everything but a marching band. If you happen to be a marching band and are reading this, first, apologies for missing you, and second, we should become friends. We could use a good marching band.

So here are the details for the biggest pep rally the U of M has ever held. On Friday, Sept. 12 at the Bison football home opener we will be celebrating our athletes, school, and campus community right before kickoff.

Gold rush

Everyone wear gold. Gold is one of our school’s and province’s defining colours. Gold represents wheat and the vast expanses of prairie land. We want anyone coming into our house to know they are in Manitoba, and that they are playing against the province’s best university.

If you don’t have gold, we are handing out 6,000 free gold fan shirts. You can get a free shirt when you buy a student ticket on the Curry Pedway from Sept. 2 to 12, or you can redeem your student ticket at Gate 3 on game day.

Pyrotechnics

University 1 Student Council and Arts Student Body Council will be treating everyone in attendance to a pyrotechnic display. Our grand finale, with the Bison cheer team performing to an explosive show, will blow you away. Not literally. It is quite safe.

Props

This is our chance to give the recognition our recent national champions, the women’s volleyball and golf teams, deserve. We will be honouring them before kickoff.

New cheer

Every school has a defining fight song, chant, or cheer. Ours is the herd call. Learn the herd call. Love the herd call. Once you do, you will have something in common with every student here!

Motivate and inspire

By the end of the pep rally we are hoping to motivate and inspire all four hundred of our athletes, every student, and our entire faculty, staff, and alumni.

We have a great community here, made up of so many wonderful people. Let’s showcase it on Sept. 12!