Members of the Butler community gathered at the Health and Recreation Complex (HRC) on April 1 to watch staff and students face off in a basketball tournament organized by the Road to the Final Four class.
The event featured two student teams competing against each other in a first game, with the winning team moving on to play against the staff team directly after. The staff emerged victorious with a final score of 23-21.
The Road to the Final Four class has spent the semester learning about events that happen in Indianapolis for the March Madness Final Four. While part of the class focuses on working with the NCAA, the other portion is volunteer-based. The class is taught by Bob Schultz and Lee Farquhar, and is part of the larger student alliance, Butler Institute for Sports Entertainment (BISE).
Senior strategic communications major Kylie Knuth shared her takeaways from being a part of this student alliance and the opportunities it has brought.
“I’ve gained so many experiences [from this class], [like] being able to volunteer [and] working with the sports community in Indianapolis,” Knuth said. “Indianapolis’ goal in 2050 is to be the sports capital of the world. Being in this class, I’ve been [at the] forefront [of] seeing that.”
Knuth noted that many of the students participating in the staff vs. students basketball game were not a part of BISE, which highlighted the class’s goal of getting more recognition for what they had to offer beyond those directly involved in it.
The basketball game was part of their “Blitz Week”, where students in this class turned to campaigns promoting free March Madness events to the student population.
Farquhar, associate professor of journalism and sports media, shared his thoughts on what made the staff vs. students event a success.
“The best part was less about sort of the campaign impact of it, and more about just sort of a cultural event, for faculty and staff,” Farquhar said. “[The most fun was the cultural element of] getting people together who maybe wouldn’t have come together to play a basketball game if it hadn’t been going on, and having them interact with students that they knew from classes or from previous experiences.”
Junior strategic communications major Clara Burns was a student participant in the basketball game and shared her thoughts on the community-based nature of sports.
“Within the industry, seeing through this class, how all the different parts of an event like this come together and the people behind it, [is] just as meaningful as the result of the game,” Burns said. “People can really feel that, when you’re at these types of events — that kind of spirit of ‘everyone has a common goal.’ They want their individual team to win, but it’s the coming together in the community that really gets people excited and enthusiastic.”
Farquhar mentioned his excitement at seeing the event turn out successfully.
“We didn’t necessarily plan for this to be an ongoing thing, but my hope is that the success of it leads students, faculty and staff to want to continue it,” Farquhar said. “I think it was a really cool sort of cultural moment that people will maybe gravitate toward in the future as well.”
Blitz Week and other Indy-based March Madness events concluded April 6 with the championship game held at Lucas Oil Stadium that evening.