Student groups got together Wednesday night to race beds they decorated. | McKenzie Misiaszek/The Cougar
The only things quicker than the lightning flashing in the sky Wednesday night were the decorated beds racing by TDECU Stadium.
Spirit teams, teams made up of five or more students that compete in the Homecoming events, raced against each other in the second annual Bed Races hosted by the Homecoming Board.
“I really can’t tell (who will win this year),” said Chair of the Homecoming Board Mayra Castillo. “You can tell who can win with decorations, but the running part you can never tell.”
Delta Upsilon and Alpha Chi Omega outraced all the other teams to take first place in their bed decorated with cardboard wings and flames with Hakeem Olajuwon’s name plastered to the side. Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Delta Gamma followed with second place.
“Our bed is pretty aerodynamic,” said finance junior and member of Delta Upsilon Cameron Richards. “If you look at the design here, I mean I didn’t design it, I just got here, just by the looks of it we got wings, we have flames, look at the design, it’s literally a rocket.”
Sororities and fraternities usually team up to compete in the Homecoming events, and Greek life makes up almost all the teams competing. Along with Greek life, the Student Government Association competed in the Bed Races.
“We’re going to start fast, we’re going to run fast and we’re going to finish fast,” said chemical engineering senior and Tau Kappa Epsilon member Andrew Hedden.
Teams had the same idea when it came to pushing their beds. Every team had a girl on the bed with multiple guys pushing the bed on three sides. With no seat belts, the riders were flat on the bed gripping the sides of the mattress. An ambulance sat to the side of the event just in case the helmets that every student had to wear were not enough.
The ambulance was not needed.
“I did this last year — it’s all about aerodynamics,” said biology senior and Undergraduate-at-Large Sen. Kim-Briana Lorine. “I’m an NSM major, so I actually can attest to the fact that a light person on the bed and people with long legs pushing it will mean we go faster.”
The races were delayed an hour after they started due to lightning. Students did not seem to mind and instead took advantage of the free food The Waffle Bus provided and the DJ that was already there and turned the racetrack into a dance floor.
When the lightning finally let up enough to continue, students gathered around the metal barricades on either side of the sidewalk in front of TDECU Stadium to watch groups run as fast as they could while trying to direct a wobbly bed in a straight line.
The bed frames were given to the Homecoming Board before the Quadrangle was knocked down. The Board bought the mattresses from an army surplus shop for less than $100 per mattress, Castillo said. Lastly, facilities welded wheels on the legs of the bed frame allowing students to race them.
Delta Upsilon, the winning fraternity, had a premonition that came true before the beds started flying. They knew they would win.
“We by far have the most passion out of any other fraternity on this campus, and that’s how we’re going to win,” Richards said.
