Greek houses have traditions before races

As the men’s and women’s Little 500 races approach, the Indiana Daily Student asked the presidents of a few greek houses across campus to share their chapters’ pre-race superstitions and traditions.

We also included how they fared in last year’s race to see how well they work.

Alpha Omicron Pi
Last year’s finish Ninth in the women’s race
Traditions: “All the riders go inside the house on the day of the race and ride their bikes out of house. Then we have a little celebration before race. We don’t have any superstitions that I know of, but on the Thursday before race, our riders watch ‘Breaking Away.’”
– Jana Struewing, junior

Alpha Gamma Delta
Last year’s finish Tenth in the women’s race
Traditions: “To send off our riders, we all come downstairs in our house and have signs for our riders, which we hang up all around. Then we do our cheer to send them off. Also, for all of our members, no drinking is allowed during the race, which shows our morals and values.”
– Brooke Scott, junior

Alpha Tau Omega
Last year’s finish Third in the men’s race
Traditions: “We wake up super early and do a rider send-off. All the riders get up and get ready in (a) room. Us and our pairs get out on the front steps of hou facillitate se, and we chant our creed and cheer as the guys go down the front steps. It’s like 200 people on the front lawn.”
– Dustin DeWitt, junior

Fiji
Last year’s finish Eleventh in the men’s race
Traditions: “On the day of the race, we get up really early and all get outside wearing purple, so if you took an aerial shot, our house would be a sea of purple. The night before, we do a bike team dinner where the team talks and passes on nicknames to someone who helped them out.”
– Adam Gemmer, junior

Delta Tau Delta
Last year’s finish Thirteenth in the men’s race
Traditions: “We do a front-door send-off. The team rides up the sidewalk and sees all the brothers lined up on the sidewalk in a tunnel formation, and we send them off that way.”
– Bryan Stoffel, junior

Phi Delta Theta
Last year’s finish Fifteenth in the men’s race
Traditions: “This is only our second year, so we’re still re-establishing our traditions. But we try to cheer and wear our colors.”
– Bob Goode, sophomore