news
alumni
ubaa by t h e n umb e r s
Online and social network numbers as of June 2011
2,090 5,420 1,201 10,965 [Facebook page “likes”]
Oozefest Accolades
[LinkedIn alumniverified members]
[Twitter followers]
[Flickr photo views]
26,000+ [UB Connect registered users]
129,527 [UB Connect email addresses] Go to www.alumni.buffalo.edu/ socialnetworks to join UBAA on social networking sites.
48 UBTODAY Fall 2011
Oozefest 2011 champs 7 ½ White Men, who managed to stay relatively mud-free, show off their temporarily shiny trophies. To see more Oozefest photos online or watch a video of the 2011 tournament, visit www. alumni.buffalo.edu/oozefest.
Association Billboard S T U D EN T A L U M NI A S S OCI A T ION
alumni teams, The Sheepherders, celebrating 17 years, and Smart Like Chicken, 15 years. Oozefest 28 is slated for April 28, 2012. Mark your calendars now!
Oozefest Thanks to a major expansion this year, Oozefest is now officially the largest single-day, double-elimination collegiate mud volleyball tournament in the nation. The addition of eight new courts to the Mud Pit on St. Rita’s Lane meant that 64 more teams were invited to play, for a grand total of 192. “We’ve had a lengthy waiting list for several years, so we were confident that we could increase the capacity,” says Patty Starr, assistant director for volunteer and student programs in the UB Office of Alumni Relations. “We hated turning anyone down who wanted to participate.” Sure enough, the 2011 event was once again a sellout, with 1,400 players, including students, alumni, faculty, staff and community members, along with more than 200 volunteers who supported the event. Taking home the tournament trophy and bragging rights was 7 ½ White Men. The prize for best costume, sponsored by alumni team Poached Trout in a White Wine Sauce (notable for its 22 consecutive years of play), was “The Mighty Morphan Power Rangers,” who will receive a free team registration in 2012. Also in the mud were two other longtime
www.buffalo.edu/UBT
UB DOWNTOWN
Striking similarities Two Western New York corporate CEOs with striking similarities headlined the UB Downtown luncheon series this spring, a program co-presented by the UB and School of Management alumni associations. Each is an alumnus of the School of Management and a member of the UB Alumni Association. Their companies are both located in Akron, N.Y. (they even share a railroad siding) and each brought plenty of tasty samples of their products. George Stege, MBA ’86, president and CEO of Ford Gum & Machine Co., the only large-scale manufacturer of gumballs in the U.S., spoke on April 14 to a sellout crowd of 63 in UB’s Jacobs Executive Development Center. A past member of the UB Alumni Association board of directors, Stege described the process of making chewing gum and how his company is staying relevant after 98 years of manufacturing gumballs. Ford’s newest hot product, for instance, is Big League Chew, a shredded bubble gum in a pouch.