Little 500

xp2k · #1 04-19-2002, 06:19 AM

If you are within a 4 hour drive of Indiana University, you wont want to miss the little 500 this weekend!!!

Its one of the biggest party weekends in the nation.

e-mail your Indiana University chapter, its a weekend you wont want to miss!!!!

AOII_Luv · #2 04-19-2002, 08:10 AM

He's right! Little 500 is a great weekend! The women's race is today at 4pm and the men's race is Saturday at 2pm. There is always something to do down here during this weekend.
Any questions, feel free to ask!

Kevlar281 · #3 04-19-2002, 10:03 AM

I’m just curious but what is the history behind this event? I have seen that one movie with finale being the Cutters beating the Greeks in the race but I am assuming this didn’t all originate from a movie.

AOII_Luv · #4 04-19-2002, 11:15 AM

I'm not sure about the history behind the race, but I know that today the proceeds from the race go to student scholarships.
The race was not made because of the movie. The movie was made because of the race...make sense?! The movie, "Breaking Away" was filmed, I believe, in the early 70's in Bloomington and the race has been going on for over 50 years.
If I am wrong about this, please let me know!

Kevlar281 · #5 04-19-2002, 01:43 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by AOII_Luv
I'm not sure about the history behind the race, but I know that today the proceeds from the race go to student scholarships.
The race was not made because of the movie. The movie was made because of the race...make sense?! The movie, "Breaking Away" was filmed, I believe, in the early 70's in Bloomington and the race has been going on for over 50 years.
If I am wrong about this, please let me know!

That’s a lot of exclamation points for answering a innocent question.

/edit: For grammatical continuity.

xp2k · #6 04-20-2002, 03:19 AM

She wasnt using exclamation marks to be rude...she was using them because excited about the weekend!

got it?!

good!

If you want to learn more about the history of the Little 500, go to http://www.iusf.bloomington.com and go to the section about the Little 500!!

AOII_Luv · #7 04-20-2002, 09:31 AM

Sorry...I wasn't trying to be rude or anything. He was right, again! I am excited about this weekend.
For anyone who is interested, Roadrunners won the women's race. They are a local team, more or less, that train year round. At the end, it was very close between Roadrunners, Kappa Kappa Gamma, and Kappa Alpha Theta.
The men's race is today at 2pm...should be a good time! Hopefully the weather will be good.
Have a great weekend and I'll let you know who wins the men's race.

AOII_Luv · #8 04-22-2002, 09:19 AM

The men's race was Saturday. The winner was the Corleones team. They are/were SAE members. SAE was not allowed to participate in Little 500, so some senior members, who didn't live in, deactivated and registered under a different name. I can't remember who placed second, but Dodd's House got third and I believe that is a dorm.

hoosier · #9 04-22-2002, 11:05 AM

For you non-hoosiers, here's a link to an article and overview of the race's 50 years.

http://www.indiana.edu/~alumni/magta...little500.html

Looking at the list of '02 entrants, I see only about 10-12 fraternities out of 33.

I wish some of the current hoosier undergrads would post on how the declining number of Greek teams affects Greek interest in the race.

xp2k · #10 04-22-2002, 09:54 PM

to answer your question "Hoosier"...

Greek interest in The Little 500 hasnt declined at all, in fact, its stronger then ever.

The university kicked a number of houses off this year for violating rules (many of which some think are too stringent, but thats an entire other post) and many of them chose to race as independant (though they still represented their respected "houses")

Also, the reason why there are fewer Greek houses in the race this year is because the pack of Independent teams got stronger.

A lot of houses that fooled around and trained poorly in the fall, found themselves not represented on race day this year. In fact, of the 38 teams that showed up on quals day, the 5 that got cut were all Greek houses.

On the bright side, I GUARANTEE that next year, quals will be taken a lot more seriously and the race will have a stronger greek showing.

XP2k

xo_sue · #11 05-03-2002, 12:39 PM

Indiana State has a bike race too (but compared to IU- they could call it mini mini mini midget 500!!!) -anyhow- in defense of the greeks- it is very hard to go to classes all day- then train from 4-7 at night, weekends - study for classes, participate in your other organizations, maybe you have a job too- where if you just work an 8 hour day- you do have the time & committment to put towards training for a race. So- that could be why local groups are much more stronger in the race than the greeks.

Ours wasn't open to local groups and I'm kinda glad. We would of been blown away by the competition.

AOII_Luv · #12 05-03-2002, 01:02 PM

Little 500 is a big deal at IU. I mean, the mens race has been going on for 52 years. There was an issue this year about one team and whether or not they should be allowed to ride. It seems that one of the riders may have been over-qualified to ride in Little 500.

These riders put in so much effort, it is just amazing. My ex-boyfriend rode for a house last year and he has so much pride for doing that and I am proud of him as well. I actually thought about riding for this year, but I am too afraid of falling!

I have heard about the race that ISU has...it is called Tandem, right? I have a friend who is a Gamma Phi there and she tells me about it.

Little 500 is such a good time! The week of Little 500 is always packed with things to do and there is so much spirit in the riders and the spectators. If you are in the area next April, I would encourage watching at least one race...men's or women's!