Relative to a few decades ago, Ball State University's annual bike race is tame and timid.
The Office of Student Life put together the race and University Program Board organized live music, a hot dog-eating contest, inflatables and more. The groups did all they could to make the McKinley Mile Bike Race and Field Day a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.
But Dillon Kimmel, vice president of marketing for UPB, wants it to become more than just a Saturday afternoon event. He wants to see McKinley Mile once again become a tradition that students wait the whole year for, an event that draws thousands.
The race has grown in the three years since Student Life and UPB have taken over. The race had 16 teams compete this year.
Registration for last year's event had to be pushed back because of lack of interest from riders. Five teams had signed up before the deadline which was less than the 2008 event, its first year back. Seven teams registered for the first one.
Tamika Smith, program coordinator for Student Life, said she was pleased with participation and the event as a whole. This was her first year at Ball State so she didn't know how the event did in the first two years.
The Field Day events also have progressed. Kimmel said roughly 700 people showed up to listen to live music, ride banzai bikes and more. That number has risen steadily since the event's return. In 2008, about 350 people attended and about 500 went last year.
"This year we were going up so that's always a good sign. ... I'd say that word has gotten out more, and students are really responding to the event well," he said.
The annual campus bike race used to be known as the Bike-a-Thon. Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity organized the event for decades before losing its charter. The Bike-a-Thon typically drew crowds in the thousands before attendance and participation waned.
The event began in 1952 and slowly built up to be the biggest event on campus every year. There would be a week of events leading up to the race, including a parade, concerts and the crowning of a Bike-a-Thon queen.
The Bike-a-Thon reached its heyday in the 1980s when teams had to qualify to compete in the race. Those races had to be held at the Muncie Fairgrounds because there wasn't enough space around campus.
The Bike-a-Thon's last year was 2004. The race had 12 teams and a few hundred spectators. But a Lambda Chi Alpha afterparty, originally a fundraiser for American Stroke Association and the Karl Harford Memorial Scholarship Fund, ended when the University Police Department received a noise complaint at about 1:30 a.m. Police cited 87 people for minor consumption and three more were arrested on charges of public intoxication, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. The incident led to the revocation of the fraternity's charter — the fraternity was re-colonized in 2008 — and meant the end of the Bike-a-Thon.
In 2008, Student Life and Student Government Association were looking for a spring event to unite campus. The two decided to bring back a bike race. Student Life and UPB organized and ran the event.
Kimmel said UPB's goal is to build the event up to the way it was at its height. He said he'd like to see it turn into an all-campus, all-weekend event. The Field Day events were split between Woodworth Lawn and University Green last year, which could have caused some confusion and possibly hurt attendance, he said. If the growth continues, he said the activities could be spread out again.
Kimmel said he wants to see the event turn into something students look forward to all year and can circle on their calendars. He said he would like to see bigger-name bands or a battle of the bands and a bigger hot dog-eating contest. As of now, these are just peripheral events that could blossom into something bigger, he said.
"I'd really like to see the hot dog eating-contest turn into a staple event as well," he said.
Right now, Kimmel said UPB doesn't have any specific points to address, just an overarching goal. UPB and Student Life will meet in a few weeks to discuss the direction of the event, he said. McKinley Mile's first three years were an experimental period to see how the event would be received. He said UPB is happy with the results and optimistic about its future.
One way to help boost the event's popularity would be to get other organizations involved, Kimmel said. UPB can only reach so far. Having greek organizations, Residence Hall Association or Spectrum get involved would tap into a different pool of students who are loyal to those groups. It has worked with other UPB events such as Quad Bash, he said, and connecting campus through the McKinley Mile is UPB's calling.
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