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On Thursday, Oct. 23 at 8 p.m. the men’s and women’s basketball teams will make their first appearance of the season in front of the student body and Union community.
Katie Woodruff, senior women’s administrator, is in charge of the event and has been for the last several years.
“The idea of the event is to get people excited about basketball season,” said Woodruff. “Originally the event was Midnight Madness as we were still competing in the NAIA, despite the fact that we never actually held the event at midnight. So we changed the name to Bulldog Madness.”
Midnight Madness is an event several NCAA schools with basketball programs participate in. The NCAA officially allows these teams to begin practicing in the middle of October, and so they will have their first practice at midnight on the opening night and allow the public to watch the practice. Most schools include pep rally types of activities and entertainment for the crowd as well.
“Bulldog Madness is important because it builds school spirit,” said Woodruff.
Students can look forward to this as more of an event, with things like the faculty/staff vs. students basketball game, a performance from Buster the Bulldog and a chance for full spring tuition with a half-court shot on the agenda.
“Bulldog Madness gives me an opportunity to create a fun event for campus that engages all groups of the community at Union and in the Jackson area. It also provides me the opportunity to increase school spirit and create support for our student athletes,” Woodruff added.
President Oliver is also looking forward to being a part of Bulldog Madness.
“I am excited to be a part of the spirit and excitement of all of us coming together to begin basketball season at Union. I am ‘participating’ in the faculty/staff vs. students game, however don’t look for me to be the high scorer,” said Oliver.
Eric Leisey, an academic senior business major and junior forward on the team, says the men’s team is excited about Bulldog Madness because of the hype this event creates for basketball fans.
“As a team, we are definitely most excited about the fans. They’ve been getting better every year and this year they’re adding the Fred Fanatics. They bring life to the gym and we feed on that energy during games,” said Leisey.
The women’s team shares the same excitement about their fans this year and for Bulldog Madness.
“I am just excited to get people fired up for our season. We want to get the students here to support our teams and come to our games,” said senior guard Amy Philamlee, an exercise science major.
“And we feel like Bulldog Madness is a great way to kick off this season and get everyone excited,” added Philamlee.
The event will also be a blackout so make sure to wear all black as Woodruff and the basketball teams hope to create “raving” fans.
