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Battle of the Ravine week exudes Tiger pride BY EMILEE WEBB Staff Writer
Battle of the Ravine (BOTR) week is an annual tradition that encourages students to show their Tiger pride through a variety of activities leading up to the highly anticipated football game against the Henderson Reddies. Capturing Ouachita’s rivalry with Henderson State University (HSU), BOTR is known as the shortest road-trip in the NCAA, as players and fans only have to travel across the street even if their team is playing “away.” This year’s game will take place on Nov. 13 at 1 p.m. at Cliff Harris Stadium. Although the main event is not until Saturday, BOTR festivities have already begun. One important BOTR event, the flag football championship game, took place last week. The men’s and women’s intramural flag football champions for Ouachita faced the intramural champions at Henderson. Both Ouachita teams came out with a victory. These wins certainly boosted students’ morale for the week ahead. This week will be filled with events for current students of all classifications and even future Tigers. One of Ouachita’s most memorable traditions, Guard the Tiger, will be held Monday through Thursday with an exciting campus-wide event on Thursday night. Throughout the week, Student Senate will host the annual Guard the Tiger event, which is the central spirit tradition of the week. The students’ main goal is to protect the tiger, the statue in the middle of campus, from HSU students. Seniors began on Monday night, followed by juniors on Tuesday night and sophomores on Wednesday night. The freshmen class will finish up on Thursday night with a campus-wide event. Each night,
Left: The men’s and women’s intramural flag football teams both won against Henderson in their “Battle of the Ravine” championship games on Nov. 4. These victories elicited excitement that continues to build as the football game approaches (photo by Coleman Callan) Right: The Tiger football team prepares to play against Henderson in the last Battle of the Ravine game in 2019. Students look forward to filling the stands to cheer on the Tigers this year. (photo by Hannah Smith)
Student Senate members will be taking down the names of every participant from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m., and every student that successfully protects Ouachita’s beloved tiger for the entire five hours will receive a free T-shirt. Kathryn Totty, junior class senator and co-chair for the special events committee on Student Senate, had a special role in planning the festivities. She invites all students to not only to participate with
their class, but to attend the event on Thursday night as well. “Thursday is the big campus-wide event, but it is also the freshmen’s night to guard the tiger. All students can come on Thursday night. We have many big events planned including an axe throwing trailer, a food truck that is free to students, and booths and tents for each of the organizations,” Totty said. “We are excited for this event to give students an exciting atmo-
sphere to prepare for Battle of the Ravine.” There will also be a special BOTR visit day for prospective students on Saturday, Nov. 13th. During the visit day, prospective students will get the chance to meet with their academic dean, participate in a campus tour and experience Ouachita’s most exciting game of the season. There will be many future tigers and alumni on campus, so prospective stu-
dents will experience the spirit of Ouachita in full. Both freshmen and sophomores have not experienced the thrill and commotion of BOTR week yet. Even for the upperclassmen, one year without Battle of the Ravine was enough to make them miss the tradition. The entire student body is elated to welcome this tradition back to campus, and to welcome alumni and prospective students to experience it alongside them.
