For one day out of the
year, the sleepy town of Terre Haute transforms itself into an ‘actual’ college
town. This occurs usually the first weekend in November for Indiana State
University’s annual homecoming festivities.
Though the town hosts
three colleges (ISU, Rose-Hulman, and St. Mary’s of the Woods), someone would
not confuse the Haute with nearby Bloomington, Champaign,
or West Lafayette. Known as a ‘suitcase college,’ most students head home to
their respective hometowns on the weekend. Sycamore football generates
virtually no buzz on the campus of 10,000. That was until the creation of one of
the most unique college football traditions in the country.
Though I won’t pretend to
know the origins of the tradition, or for how long it has continuously graced
the streets of downtown Terre Haute,
but ‘The Walk’ is the only time all year that students and alumni can feel pride
in being a Sycamore. Students from other colleges also come into town for the
event—which is virtually unheard of any other time.
‘The Walk’ is simply that;
students walk the approximate 4 miles from campus to Memorial Stadium for the
afternoon football game. To cover this long distance, students and alumni get
an early start as to not miss kickoff. The only catch is, participants must
stop at every bar along the way and consume one adult beverage before continuing
their journey.
This is an unofficial
event in homecoming weekend, one that school administrators and town officials
would probably rather do away with. But the fact remains, it’s the only time
large amounts of students actively stay of campus for an athletic event. It’s
also great for local business.
With such a unique event
inside the Hoosier state, the staff of the Hoosier Gazette decided to check the
action out for ourselves. Who could turn down an invitation to imbibe so early
in the morning?
So under sun soaked skies,
we began our journey midway through the circuit at Ambrosini’s . We must admit—
we did not follow the official ‘Walk’ rules—we drove rather than walked and we
did not start until the more reasonable time of 10:30 AM.
The staff was shocked at
the debauchery on display on Wabash Avenue. Frat boys who could barely walk,
bars more crowded than they had been in years, young coeds drunker than
skunks—the whole atmosphere made you feel it was midnight. Then you realize
it’s only 11:00 AM
and the game is still 2 and half hours away.
THE GAME
Being the sports fans that
we are, we decided to actually attend the homecoming game, ISU v. the University
of Northern Iowa.
That could not be said for over 70% of the participants of ‘The Walk.’ Many
simply don’t bother to even show up for the contest. Beginning heavy drinking at
7 AM does not lend itself to a huge interest in college football. Besides, none
of these students had attended the other 4 home games this year, why would they
start caring about the football team now?
Upon our arrival at the
antiquity-built Memorial Stadium, we soon realized this was to be no ordinary
game. Usually parking is ample; today the usual acres of open parking spaces
were covered by festivity tents and heavier drinking. For as many people out on
Wabash, there were just as many drinking
their favorite beverages before game time.
Upon making our way into
the stadium, it was apparent that only 1 % of the people in town for homecoming
were actually going to suffer through the game. This was rather surprising
considering the Fighting Sycamores were going for their first winning season in
a coon’s age. Coming into the contest with a 4-5 record, a win in the next two
games would guarantee a reprieve from the usual oblivion ISU annually finds
itself.
It was not to be today.
Maybe it was the large amount of people who were in the stadium (don’t get me
wrong, there weren’t many people, but compared to usual it seemed like a packed
house) that scared the team. Maybe the players were thinking of the parties to
be had after the game. Maybe some of them were actually on ‘The Walk.’
Whatever the reason, Indiana State
laid its biggest egg of the year.
It was not very long
before the game was totally out of hand. With the score 31-3 right before
halftime, poor play on the field, and a finished bottle of rum, the Hoosier
Gazette staff deiced to leave the stadium for greener pastures and more
drinking. This proved to be a wise decision as the Sycamores staggered their
way to a 58-6 debacle. The game reminded one of the atmosphere of the college
in the movie “The Waterboy” before Adam Sandler showed up.
No matter what the origin
of ‘The Walk’, the investigate reporting by the THG staff was able to uncover
one the reasons this event was started: To suffer through terrible football
year after year, you’ve got to start tossing back beers early and often. All
the same, it was still great to see Terre Haute turn itself into a college town
for at least one day.
