Union’s campus has been abuzz with events this week, starting Monday, Oct. 30 at 7 p.m. when the freshman student council kicked off Homecoming Week with live music, hot chocolate and a costume contest.
This event was the first of many that will lead up to The Buster Bowl, Union’s annual event where faculty and students embrace the theme of coming home by suiting up for a game of football.
Though most homecoming events focus on celebrating the Union community, students prioritized pouring back out into the community on Tuesday, Oct. 31 for Campus and Community Day, a yearly dedication to serving Jackson with spirits of remembrance and thankfulness after the 2008 tornadoes.
After a day of serving, students gathered on the Great Lawn at 5:30 p.m. to honor Buster the Bulldog with a retirement party hosted by the sophomore and junior class councils. To carry on Buster’s legacy, students painted themselves in body paint and marched over to Bulldog Madness, Union’s most amplified pep rally event of the year.
This year at Bulldog Madness, an official naming of the Union student section took place. Now known as The Blitz, the student section having a name is intended to create a greater sense of belonging, highlighting the greater purpose of homecoming week.
Similar energy will be brought into the upcoming Buster Bowl, as it will be held on a Saturday night rather than the traditionally scheduled Saturday morning, creating an experience similar to high school football games.
“In high school, the whole week was building up to that Friday night game,” Dannie Harrington, junior communication arts major and candidate for junior class president, said. “Which is cool because we can see that now with moving the Buster bowl to a Saturday night. There’s like this anticipation, this hype that you can get with a night game that you miss a lot of if you’re doing a game in the morning because people are sleeping in because it’s a Saturday.”
“Also you get to play under the lights, which is a big thing like, you know, your Friday night lights. But this year it’s Saturday night lights, which is still equally as fun. But the whole week we have event after event and we’re just building this school spirit. And I believe that it’s all leading to the Buster Bowl, which is where the most hype I think is this year,” Harrington said.
Anna Swindell, junior communication arts major and assistant homecoming director, also compared homecoming week to high school.
“So like Tuesday night there’s a hype competition. Whoever is the most excited and brings the most energy to Bulldog Madness is gonna receive points for their organization, and then there’s gonna be fun music and we’re gonna do chants,” Swindell said. “Bulldog Madness is kind of like a pep rally, which reminds me of the school spirit that we had in high school.”
Swindell has been in charge of planning Bulldog Madness, giving her greater insight into the inner workings of the event.
“I think events like Tuesday night are gonna be fun because it just creates a better community both for the athletes and the non-athletes,” Swindell said. “There’s gonna be moments where people can interact with one another, and it just kind of tears down those walls and reminds us that we’re all one big community and that it’s ultimately just one university and one Union family.”
Later in the week, anticipation will continue to build for Saturday’s event with a day of sports as the senior class council will host Bulldog Olympics on the Great Lawn on Thursday, Nov. 2 at 5:30 p.m. before Intramural Championship Games take place.
Friday, Nov. 3, the Student Activities Council will host their annual fall event Hullabaloo, an outdoor concert, at 7 p.m. in downtown Jackson.
The peak of homecoming will encourage the energy created at Bulldog Madness as the men’s basketball team kickstart their season with a home game at 3 p.m. on Nov. 4. Later, at Jackson Christian School, the Buster Bowl Tailgate will begin at 5 p.m. before the game at 7 p.m., bringing together faculty and students in celebration of calling Union University home.
