Indiana University has the Little 500 bike race; Purdue University has the Grand Prix kart race, and Ball State University needs the McKinley Mile Championship -- where students compete in a relay road race.
"The goal is to establish a sole intramural event that represents Ball State during the spring semester," Jacqueline Kohlmann, senior public relations major, said.
The intramural event would consist of four-person relay teams with each person running one mile on McKinley Avenue. The relay teams would compete against students in the same organizational categories, including greek organizations, residence halls, and student and independent organizations.
Each competitor would begin and finish at the intersection of McKinley and University. After running a half-mile north on McKinley, runners would turn around at Neely Avenue and run south to complete their respective legs of the relay. The McKinley and University intersection would also be the exchange zone for the next teammate to begin.
"The McKinley Mile would be the capstone event to a week full of student activities," Kohlmann said.
"We hope to make the race festivities equal to what Homecoming week is today," she said.
To start the race, however, Recreation Services has to approve it. To do that, students need to support it, Andy Fry, graduate assistant for intramural sports, said.
Students can support the event by gathering a list of potential competitors and submitting it to the Office of Recreation Services. The intramural sports graduate assistants could approve the list and the idea and then present it to upper management
The most-sought-after students would be those not involved in residence hall or greek organizations. Flag football was the largest intramural activity on campus this year, and 80 percent of its competitors came from independent organizations.
Independent organizations, however, would be the most challenging to target and market to because of a lack of direction.
Greek organizations and residence halls are the most organized and generally have people in charge of recruiting participation and entering teams for intramural sports, Fry said.
Regardless, students can show school spirit by working together and making the McKinley Mile an intramural spring-semester event.
Instead of praising Indiana for its bike race and Purdue for its kart race, let's create a race that would overshadow them both: The McKinley Mile Championship.
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