Carr featured at pep rally today

The biggest party of the weekend will attract some of the campus' most well-known personalities. Beginning at 5:30 p.m. today, Michigan Football coach Lloyd Carr, Athletic Director Tom Goss, Vice President for Student Affairs E. Royster Harper and the Wolverine captains will speak to thousands of spirited fans at the Alpha Delta Phi football pep rally.

The entire 425-member Michigan marching band, the dance and cheerleading teams and an estimated 5,000 fans will spill from the fraternity's front lawn - usually a sand volleyball court - into South State Street. For two hours, the street will close from South University Avenue to East Madison Street.

DAVID ROCHKIND/Daily Engineering seniors Branton Cole and Jeff Poniatowksi hang a banner from the balcony of the Alpha Delta Phi house yesterday in preparation for today's pep rally.

Alpha Delta Phi President Brandon Armitage said this event "is open for everyone." He added the pep rally is "a great way to get the Greek name across campus."

After 20 years, the annual pep rally has become a football season tradition, and each year it gets even bigger. Head planner LSA senior Branton Cole said "the event takes an amazing amount of time to put together." He said that he must first get the coach Carr to attend because without him, "the event is worthless."

The pep rally has a few goals, Cole said, one being "to bond the community and share the unique experience" of feeling the camaraderie in the football stadium. The pep rally also gives the students the ability to see what a fraternity and Greek Life is all about.

The event planning involved more than just booking Carr. There was marketing and advertising too. Even the electronic banners at both Yost and Cliff Keen arenas inform passersby with messages about the pep rally. Diag display boards and numerous campus doors are also loaded with signs, and Director of Athletic Media Relations Bruce Madej assisted the fraternity with publicizing the event with press releases.

After months of planning, organizers are looking forward to "the traditional pep rally feeling. Everyone is on the same side rooting for the same team. For a moment no one will think about school," Cole said.

Alpha Delta Phi member Jason Sparks anticipates his first Alpha Delta Phi pep rally.

"I have heard from the alumni around the house that it is a big event on campus, I have seen the planners working since the beginning of the summer on this," he said.

Music sophomore Lauren Molina said "pep rallies create a higher sense of school spirit, bringing everyone together, which is very important in such a large school. It gives us unity."

LSA first-year student Dana Davis is excited about today's event as well. "It gets your adrenaline rushing and gives a strong sense of spirit."

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