COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- While there has been plenty of snowfall
across Tennessee this winter, the region has not faced a bona fide
"blizzard" in quite some time.
That will change Monday night in Eblen Center when Tennessee Tech
hosts Tennessee State in a men's basketball game at 7 p.m.
Whether or not the weather outside cooperates won't matter --
there is a "blizzard" warning being posted for inside Eblen Center
for the Ohio Valley Conference game against the Tigers. Tennessee
Tech Athletics in Bringing Back The Blizzard, and fan participation
is the key.
"Blizzards" in Eblen Center became legendary in the late 1980s and
early 1990s, one event going so far as to be selected by ESPN as
the Play of the Day. That's not a play from the game, but the
actual "blizzard" of Tech squares. The network used footage of
Tech's blizzard as a key video element during it's lead-in to
national telecasts for the remainder of the season.
Tech has found the original "Tech squares" for this blizzard --
small, square sheets of toilet paper -- and will provide them to
fans in the stands prior to the game. No outside paper of any form
will be allowed into Eblen Center. No objects should be thrown into
the air except the "official" Tech squares.
Fans are asked to act in a responsible manner for the safety of
the players, and to follow the OVC Sportsmanship guidelines by not
throwing the paper onto the playing floor to hinder the game's
progress. Throwing paper onto the floor could lead to ejection from
Eblen Center.
"We're excited about bringing back the blizzard, and we're trying
to manage it within the OVC Sportsmanship guidelines," said Mark
Wilson, TTU Director of Athletics. "It's an event from the past
that our fans and students always got excited about. We're asking
fans to contain the blizzard within the stands so we don't
interfere with the game."
Fans wait in anticipation for Tech's first points of the game. As
soon as the Golden Eagles score their first basket, the air is
filled with Tech squares, sometimes so thick that the "blizzard"
blocks out the arena lights and shadows engulf the floor.
"It's important that we have one blizzard at our first points,
that it stays in the seats, and that nobody throws any items after
that," Wilson said. "That's the main message we need to impress
upon our fans."
Tenessee Tech's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) has been
a proponent of bringing back the blizzard since school began in
August. Brooke Mayo, the 2010-11 president of SAAC, encourages fans
to show good sportsmanship.
"We're encouraging fans to throw the Tech Squares up into the
stands, and not at the floor," Mayo said. "We think it can have the
same effect, but will stay within OVC guidelines, and still be a
dramatic event for fans to enjoy and experience."
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow?