How about...........?

Athletics Department, Facilities, etc.
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Neckfansince71
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The Horizon Conference with MVFC for football, or the OVC for all sports? Seems to me it would drastically reduce travel costs! Schools are all similar to WIU and there are no major state universities to be found such as North Dakota State, North Dakota, South Dakota, and South Dakota State. The fact that these schools are at the top of the food chain gives them a lot of cash for facilities and such. Just a thought! What do you think? ;) jc
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sealhall74
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Horizon League is big city schools. We might be a fish out of water there, I.E. at a serious recruiting disadvantage. OVC much better fit. Other Illinois schools to foster a rivalry game every now and then.
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sealhall74
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Here is a great promotional item for upcoming games. A "Purple Tush Cush for Whiny Heinie" giveaway has a real nice ring to it. Would be nice if the covers were purple and maybe had a WIU logo on them but cant have everything in life. These things are getting rave reviews on Youtube. I guess if there is a downside to these things, it might be that they are so damn comfortable no one will want to get up out of their seat and make some serious noise. I just ordered one and will give it a test run at the local Class A ball park. Stay tuned.

https://purple.com/seatcushions
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sealhall74
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... the theme of this year's Homecoming have something to do with the environment? Instead of the campus organizations parading a bunch of throw-away float projects on top of trucks and hay racks , they show off their entries into the 1st Ever But Soon To Be Annual WIU Plastic Bottle Boat Regatta. Athe the end of the parade route, all of the bottle boats and likely most of the occupants get wet in beautiful Lake Ruth. Oh wait, that body of water is not quite big enough. Let me work on the logistics and details for this. Seriously, our directional to the south held their 45th annual Cardboard Boat Regatta back in April. I know we usually have one of those things at Homecoming. As Chef Emiril Lagasse says, time to "kick it up a notch". And if we are going to make a real timed race out of it, our Engineering Dept or Physics Dept had better damn well win it. BTW, participants should not wait until last week to start collecting their empty bottles. That might be a bit too much drinking to do. Also, if we can get a Flex Tape sponsorship for this event, it will be big. ;)

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ST_Lawson
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They used to do a cardboard boat regatta at the pond in Glenwood Park, which was a much better size for that type of thing (and a decade or two before that in the Patton Park pond...I participated in one of those).

The theme is already set for this year, but you could suggest the idea to the alumni association for next year.

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wiu712
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ST_Lawson wrote: Thu Jul 19, 2018 8:23 amThey used to do a cardboard boat regatta at the pond in Glenwood Park.
The cardboard boat regatta is still a featured event during Homecoming Week.

Rocky's Boat Regatta: Sunday, September 23, 2018, at 12:00 pm, Everly Park.
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sealhall74
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wiu712 wrote: Thu Jul 19, 2018 8:36 am
ST_Lawson wrote: Thu Jul 19, 2018 8:23 amThey used to do a cardboard boat regatta at the pond in Glenwood Park.
The cardboard boat regatta is still a featured event during Homecoming Week.

Rocky's Boat Regatta: Sunday, September 23, 2018, at 12:00 pm, Everly Park.
So, in the last decade, is the event gaining in popularity from this one back in 2008?



Difficult to tell how big that pond is.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Everl ... 90.6697251

Might have to make it a contest to see what organization's boat can get the most bodies up on it and still keep it together in one piece. I will shoot off the suggestion to the Homecoming committee. This is the kind of thing you have to plan weeks ahead of time so that everyone has enough bottles to work with. It should be good for local grocery store and Walmart. Waste Management or recycler needs to be in the loop as well. Should be open to all community groups not just students. I think it is a good way to work on the Town and Gown issue.
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ST_Lawson
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There's a measuring tool built into Google Maps. As near as I can tell, where they're starting to where they're finishing is about 165 feet. I didn't realize that they were still doing it as part of Homecoming...I don't remember hearing anything about it the last few years.

When it first started at Patton Park, there were probably 30-40 boats entered, if I remember correctly. I was in high school at the time, and my literature class was reading The Odyssey. Because the teacher was cool and wanted to get us really interested, each of his classes built a boat for the cardboard boat regatta. Our boat ended up being huge. ~1 ft thick nearly airtight hull with vertical cardboard tubes between the outside and inside layers. It was based on a viking longboat design...carried 12 people pretty easily (six rowers on each side). We won our first heat because we didn't have any problems with taking on water. Didn't make it past the second heat though because we were too slow (beaten by a very well-designed pedal-powered paddlewheel type boat built by one of the local heating/cooling installation/repair places in town). Even when we were done and had to fit it into the dumpster they had there, we couldn't break it apart to get it to fit in (even after two races in the water)....just had to leave it sticking out.

Empty plastic bottles would be much easier to work with in terms of buoyancy...little bit of superglue in each cap...screw it down...those things should float really darn well and wouldn't come apart mid-race like some of the carboard boats do.
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