Fall rolls 2008 came to a cold and boring end with a pair of cancellations and no mini-raceday for the men’s teams. I know I usually call the current kids wimps for canceling because of cold, but it was 16 degrees, windy, and icy this morning. Fair enough.
Some end of the semester stats :
- There were 355 total rolls over 6 days (4 days canceled)
- Sweepstakes averaged 30.6 buggies around the course per scheduled hour of rolls
- 12 orgs rolled a total of 32 different buggies
- Fringe (74) and SDC (63) send the most buggies down the hill, while KDR (10) and SAE (8) took the fall a bit easier.
- The most active buggy-driver combo was Fringe’s Jess in Blizzard with 18 rolls
- According to one timing source (additional sources of data welcome), orgs stacked up like this according to their fastest freeroll of the semester
Credit to a new committee for keeping things running pretty smoothly. We’ll see how that 30.6 rolls/hour number stacks up in the future. We’re all glad that the few incidents we did see didn’t seem to dampen anyone’s spirits, so this spring ought to be smooth and fast. Happy building season to everyone.
Carsen says:
Where has the insanity gone?
I remember a time when nothing stopped us from trying to roll. If there were wet leaves in the chute at 6am, we would drive the course to dry it, or at least have fun trying. When it was 20 degrees out, drivers wore more clothes and flaggers looked like eskimos.
I remember one special night in Fall of 97 when we weren’t really short on rolls; we Fringetypes just wanted to roll. A torrential downpour had left the course dripping, and there was a huge backup in the chute grate. Mike Hurwitz, Christian Jungers, I and a couple more Fringe mechanics, still awake 4am and undeterred by the rain, borrowed rolling squeegees from the local tennis courts and started mopping up the course. To squeeze more out, Christian stood on top of the squeegee while Mike pushed. It was an epic fail, but boy was it fun.
We got down to the chute and started unclogging the haybaled sewer grate. After a while of this, Dani and Debby came around in a car and, despite our pleading, told us rolls were canceled.
I’m not not saying we were right in the head, but I will say that the old sense of urgency has faded. And where has the sawdust fairy gone?
bordick says:
Carsen,
I agree completely. We went to EXTREME measures to get as many rolls and push practices as possible.
I logged a lot of miles on my little pickup driving that course. I’ll bet they don’t bounce cars either, do they? They probably don’t even know how!
You know what we should do? We should get a group of alumni together so we can rekindle that buggy drive into the current undergrads. . . .
. . .oh wait.
Carl says:
The truly old-school buggy folks skipped fall semester rolls because they were on dean’s vacation.
16F is pretty damn cold though.
Lemuroid says:
Carsen’s comments bring back memmories of trying to use a garden hose to syphon the flood away from the chute. Futile, but we really wanted to roll.
When did the concept of mini raceday occur? Seems like a great idea.
tommy k says:
I think it was spring of 2000 … I only remember because I missed it on account of the Guinness Toast being the night before and the forecast was for 100% chance of rain … not a drop (of rain) fell (plenty of beer was spilled) and when the head mechanic tried to wake me the next day I nearly punched him.
Fringe won. The prize was a case of beer … which was supposed to motivate the frats.