The Big Horns have been around for over a year now. The group started out with three students lathered in body paint, fur hats, and some extra energy to burn at a men’s hockey home opener and has since sprawled into a community of students with full fur costumes, customs, and camaraderie.
The Big Horns have also spread out into other leadership positions on campus. Last year Andrew Fenwick was in his first year as a student at the University of Manitoba. He joined the Big Horns after meeting us at a basketball game and has since become the disabilities rep for UMSU and the accessibility rep for Arts Student Body Council.
Joe Kelly joined the Big Horns last year and even road tripped to Regina to cheer on the women’s volleyball team at Nationals; now he is the Arts Student Body Council president. One of the original three who dawned body paint, Rebecca Kunzman, is now UMSU’s vice-president advocacy.
I’m not saying that being a Big Horn is why these students became leaders, but the Big Horns are a group that helped increase their sense of belonging and connection to our school.
A lot has changed since the early days of standing on top of trash bags to paint our bodies at the Hub. We now have a core leadership group made up of senior members responsible for promotions, finances, relationships, and programming.
With Big Horn flair, we managed to add some flavour to your traditional executive titles. Our group features a grand poobah, archduke of fun, social media and electronic word wizard, and a drum commander.
Perhaps one of the most notable changes for the Big Horns is how we recruit new members. Each Big Horn is asked to find a Little Horn. A Little Horn is someone you bring to the games, introduce to the group, mentor, and have pledge to become a new member. The real goal is to provide students looking to meet new people a friend to introduce you to the group and be your go-to person.
Recently, a first-year student stopped me in University Centre. She had my named scribbled on a piece of paper and was told that I was the guy to find to join the group. I helped her find a Big Horn in the group and she has been coming out every weekend since. The reason I am telling this story is because of what has happened after she joined.
I was browsing Facebook and saw a picture posted by the first-year student. The picture was of both the Little Horn and Big Horn and the caption read, “Thanks for being my supportive Big Horn. It has been a great time since we met! I appreciate every single moment of spending time with you.”
Our Big Horn has become not only a senior student mentor in the group, but a friend for our new first-year member.
The structure and size of our group may have changed, but we are still, at the core, about bonding at sports games. We’ve seen friendships form, students grow into leaders, and student-athletes embrace the new fan community.
Altruism is alive and well in the Big Horns, and we hope that by becoming an UMSU group and creating a new group setup modelled after the big brother/big sister format, the Big Horns will be a permanent fixture in campus culture.
