Pudding wrestling: the dirty side of Little 500

The rays from the afternoon sun were drying the pudding that covered IU junior Josh Falcon’s body and hair. The scent of warm chocolate and sweat surrounded him after the third annual pudding wrestling competition held Friday at Terra Trace Apartments.\n“You don’t live college until you have been smacked in the face with pudding,” Falcon said.\nFor many, the pudding wrestling has become a Little 500 tradition.\n“I missed it last year, but that was a mistake,” Falcon said.\nFalcon was part of a crowd of people that gathered around an inflatable pool filled with 150 gallons of pudding. Terra Trace management served food to spectators as they listened to music from the Clayton Anderson Band.\n“With great music, a great apartment complex, the tastiest pudding around and Little 500, it doesn’t get any better,” said IU senior Clayton Anderson.\nOnce the wrestling began, spectators including freshman Rachel Thomas became participants.\n“One guy picked me up and threw me in,” Thomas said.\nThomas was declared the winner of a three-way match, and as she waited for her next match, she stood uncomfortably, covered in pudding.\n“It’s kind of cold,” Thomas said. “It’s starting to dry up on me, and it feels kind of gross.”\nOther people at the event, like junior C.J. Stults, enjoyed the feeling of being covered in pudding.\n“It’s kind of nice,” Stults said. “It might be good for \nthe complexion.”\nStults said the pudding wrestling at Terra Trace was the best thing he had done so far to celebrate Little 500.\n“I’ll be here next year for sure,” Stults said. “Except next year I’m wrestling every girl I can find.” \nThe tradition of pudding wrestling at Terra Trace began three years ago when the IU football team defeated Oregon. Matt Suter, now a senior, was at Yogi’s Grill & Bar when he began talking to some friends about organizing KY Jelly wrestling to celebrate the win. Suter said he decided to use pudding instead because KY Jelly would have been too expensive. Once that decision was made, Suter and his friends bought 66 gallons of pudding at Sam’s Club.\n“I thought the management at the apartment complex would be pissed because it ruined the grass,” Suter said. “For about a year after that, every time it rained pudding came up from the ground.”\nBut Terra Trace management was actually pleased with Suter and his pudding party because of the publicity it brought to the apartment complex. Suter said he got a check in the mail for $50 from Terra Trace management for referrals. People began signing leases at the apartment complex and mentioning Suter’s pudding party.\nThat spring, one of Suter’s friends, Dustin Stender, talked Terra Trace management into sponsoring another round of pudding wrestling for Little 500.\n“I didn’t know it would be every year, but it just kind of took off,” Stender said. “It’s Suter and I’s little child. It has a life of its own now.”\nThe event has been held every Little 500 weekend since then, and Kathy Sadler, manager for Terra Trace Apartments, said it has become their trademark.\n“We make T-shirts that we hand out when people sign leases,” Sadler said.\nSadler said the apartment complex was better prepared for this year’s pudding wrestling. “The first year was a little messy, but we got through it,” Sadler said. \nThis year they had more trash cans and water hoses for people to wash the pudding off themselves. This was also the first year a trophy was awarded to the winner, sophomore Kelsey Mellman.\n“I’ve never done anything like that before,” Mellman said.\nMellman said she was totally surprised to win because she did not wrestle until the end.\n“It was completely nasty,” Mellman said of the pudding. “I clogged my shower trying to get it all off.”\nJunior Erica Schmidt said she loves that Terra Trace hosts the pudding wrestling. She came to the event last year when she heard about it from some of her friends that live there. She has wrestled in the pudding both years.\n“The nastiest part is getting pudding in your mouth because it’s been all over everyone else’s body,” Schmidt said. “All the rest is fun.”\nDespite getting pudding in her mouth, Schmidt has not shied away from the event.\n“I’m coming back every year,” Schmidt said.