The sun has set on another rivalry game between the University of Nevada and that college down south, and I am proud to say that the Fremont Cannon has returned home. Wolf Pack fans slept soundly on Saturday night knowing that their fearless leader, Cody Fajardo, had led the Pack to victory and showed the Runnin’ Rebels what colors the cannon should truly be: silver and blue.
However, as I drove sleepily back to Reno the following day, I was struck by the lingering question, “what happened to ‘Beat UNLV Week?’” Sure, Pack fans showed their support at Sam Boyd Stadium when they needed to, but what happened to all of the traditions leading up to the game?
It seems that a lack of planning and promotion contributed to what could arguably be considered the worst “Beat UNLV Week” of all time.
Over my past four years at this university, I have experienced several amazing traditions that often made me proud to be a member of the Wolf Pack. It was a point of pride to discuss the annual Moon Off with friends from home, telling them about our student body dropping pants as a unified “screw you” to UNLV.
I reveled in the memory of waiting all night in a massive line wrapping around Lombardi Recreation Center waiting to receive my coveted Nevada-UNLV game day ticket — a tradition that was quickly killed off by the ease of student tickets being added to the Wolf Card.
The traditions surrounding the UNLV game were some of my absolute favorites because they represented the quintessential idea of what I imagined a college athletic rivalry to look like.
There was something strangely therapeutic about smashing a car with UNLV painted on it in front of the Joe Crowley Student Union. The traditions were spirited and full of Pack Pride. They rallied the crowd, leaving people talking about the game days in advance ready to show off how much they cared about the Pack.
The clear lack of enthusiasm felt this year compared to previous ones seemed to stem from a few significant factors. First, and potentially most importantly, the Beat UNLV Week festivities fell during Thanksgiving this year, so students had to deal with truncated celebration. That was out of the hands of event organizers, so it would be hard to blame them for that.
That said, students didn’t seem to care as much this year because they didn’t understand the tradition behind the events. The Moon Off has been happening since before I was a freshman, and it has always drawn people from different parts of campus to the university’s quad. The Moon Off was something special that I had never heard about at another campus, and it felt even cooler knowing that I was partaking in something that was part of our history.
For that reason, I was a bit confused this year when the Moon Off was moved to a different location and combined with a bonfire, making it feel like a bit of an afterthought. The lack of a clear starting time for the Moon Off also made it seem unimportant … or maybe there was a starting time? I just don’t know for sure, which actually brings me to my next major qualm with the festivities: the lack of visible promotion for any of the events.
Did you know there was a Beat UNLV BBQ in front of the Joe? Neither did I, but that might be because there were only 22 people invited on Facebook. Granted, it is difficult to bring people to a BBQ the day before Thanksgiving, but that should mean the events are promoted more strongly, as opposed to simply being thrown to the wayside.
Personally, I would rather see my social media feeds blow up with promotions than regret the last Moon Off of my college career. As a graduating senior, it feels a bit like I was cheated out of a proper Beat UNLV Week, largely because I didn’t realize it was happening. You might blame that on me, but I am much more involved on campus today than I ever was as a freshman, and I didn’t miss a single event during freshman year.
Beat UNLV Week should have been planned far enough in advance to hold events the week before Thanksgiving. It may have been a little early for the excitement, but at least the younger students could have experienced the week in the same way I did when I was a freshman.
Don’t get me wrong; I have much respect for the people responsible for programming major events on our campus. It is difficult to please all students all of the time, but there seemed to be some major oversight for Beat UNLV Week. After the massive success of events such as Diplo and the Homecoming Parade, it is disappointing that our rivalry week — my favorite week in years passed — flopped so hard.
Beat UNLV Week is an opportunity to mobilize student support, which is a problem that athletics seems to have struggled with all semester. This should be the university’s most well-planned week all year because it seems to be the week people really start to care the most. Nothing can excite people like a good old fashion rivalry. Moving forward, it is critical to keep the traditions alive that have always amped students up for a Wolf Pack victory.
Daniel Coffey studies journalism. He can be reached at dcoffey@unr.edu and on Twitter @TheSagebrush.