Sororities perform skits to celebrate the return of football. Photo by Fred StephensSurabhi Rao - Features Editorfeatures@insideuab.com
Dozens of students were turned away as they tried to enter a packed UAB’s Alys Stephens Center for Blazer Showdown on Tuesday, Oct. 25.
This year’s Showdown, formerly known as “Stompdown,” was held at the ASC for the first time in the event’s history, according to Jessica Nathan, the coordinator of student activities and student homecoming committee advisor.
A crowd of students lined up hours before the event, which began at 6 p.m. to watch members of sororities and fraternities performance their skit-dance combinations.
Alpha Omicron Pi and Tau Kappa Epsilon took first place in the sorority and fraternity categories, respectively, with Alpha Gamma Delta and Alpha Xi Delta sororities tying for second place, and Phi Gamma Delta fraternity taking second place as well.
“I think we got the win by being the most prepared and having some really dedicated guys on our team,” said Alex Johnson, a senior member of TKE. “We definitely exhibited blazer spirit by not only building a dragon prop for use in the performance, but also by emphasizing a literal blaze with a fire theme. As an older member it’s great to see us win because I personally participated in the competition for the past three years and this is only TKE’s second win since I’ve been here.”
The cheers that erupted during the first performance did not stop throughout the entire evening, as the balcony and floor of Jemison Concert Hall were filled to the brim with students waving poster boards of encouragement and roaring with never-ending hoots and hollers.
The elaborate backdrop and stage props, coupled with audio that changed for each act, went hand in hand with the scale of the performances.
AOPi performed a skit centered around a time machine that traveled to the first day that UAB football was established. When the main character, Marty, accidentally changes what happened on that day, she changed history. After restoring the original history of UAB football, she takes us through the brief period of time where football was canceled and then brings us to the future, where UAB takes home a win of 45-17 against LSU. With synchronous dance numbers sprinkled throughout this plot, AOPi received the loudest cheers.
“We started practicing a little over a month before the event. The time machine from the 80s move Back to the Future was a DeLorean DMC-12, which was a cool and stylish car at the time, so I decided that our time machine should be like a 2016 version,” said Blair Gaither, the senior nursing major in charge of their performance.
“It’s always very exciting. The competition keeps getting better, so every year we have to make sure we step it up a notch,” Gaither said. “It’s my last year, so I went a little overboard, from the changing backdrops, to a car, costume changes and a panda at the end. Luckily we had a team of very talented girls, including Allie David, who came up with the awesome original choreography.”
TKE started their skit off with a huge parade dragon that multiple men were dancing under, and kept the audience on its toes by slowly revealing who the dancers were, as they all started off with masks. Alpha Xi Delta did a remake of the movie ”The Purge,” with the audio to their skit portraying a Purge where students are looking for Blaze. Alpha Gamma Delta presented a Halloween theme, with zombies loose at UAB. Pi Kappa Phi and Sigma Kappa also focused on UAB football. Sigma Kappa went through the history of UAB’s football team, decade by decade, with different dance numbers. Lambda Chi Alpha focused on “forever blaze,” and what that phrase can mean. FIJI’s performance had dances coupled with commentary about bringing back the football team, followed by a serenade to a football.
