Homecoming without a football team? Yeah, freaked me out too, especially since I'm coming from the sticks of Albany, Georgia where football reigns as Lord, Savior, and ultimate Redeemer of all. The first time I heard about the fact that Adelphi was having a homecoming was when I was getting assigned to do an article about it. I walked out of The Delphian meeting still a bit dazed about the whole concept. I couldn't connect the idea of Adelphi to homecoming, but, I thought "what the hey," and decided to give it a try. Thus, I found myself at Midnight Madness.

On arrival to Woodruff Hall at approximately 10:15, I was astounded with the amount of people that were already standing in line. In a school where everything starts about five minutes behind schedule I was shocked to see so many standing around eagerly, clad in yellow and black, to get into the spirited event. I thought that the rain would have at least kept some of the girls from coming out, yet, they risked the chance of messing up their hair and liquid eye-liner for school pride. All walks of life were there, ranging from seniors to freshmen, geeks to freaks, winners to losers, and the intellectual to the brain-refrained. This sight was amazing, and did nothing but prove all the more that this school had a lot of pride for their homecoming sports team, even if it wasn't football. The anxiousness of some of the students even led them to cut in line! Sit in the back of the bleachers? No, no, my friend, these people wanted to be in the front. Luckily they were cool enough to have a friend or two towards the front of the line so they, along with their group of twenty three friends, could cut in front of all those less deserving of seats.

Once the doors opened at 10:30 the line of people quickly crowded into the tiny foyer of the gym. Each person had to show an Adelphi I.D., and in turn received a little yellow ticket stub with a random number on it. By this time, all the cool people had filled up the seats. They must have forgotten to save me a seat, but it's ok. I filled up the staircase with the rest of the "latecomers" and found a spot along the guard railing. Immediately I noticed the overly excited people throwing t-shirts, large yellow paws, and noisemakers into the crowd. Somehow I got a yellow and black pom-pom thrown my way. No, I wasn't one of the jerks that threw it back down trying to trip up the panther. I held on to it the entire time and waved it around at what I thought was an appropriate time-this whole event of pom-pom waving was very trying for me.

Amidst all the chaos and music, the two people in the center court with microphones started calling out numbers. Eventually I caught on that these numbers coalesced with the numbers on the back of our ticket stubs and that they were calling people down to participate in a few games. These games did the usual thing, made people do ridiculous things for money or prizes. After the first game the Adelphi Cheerleading squad came out. They did a pretty good performance with music that definitely pumped up the crowd. Another culture shock was the fact that there was only one guy on the squad. However, I'm sure that was just an Adelphi thing, not a southern thing.

The dance team then came out and really set the crowd off. They had some moves no mother would approve of, however, they got the crowd on their feet and cheering. At this point the school spirit was definitely about to spill over. Then the bars were blown off the windows with one of the best performances of the night - the step team. These girls and guy came out in a slow strut that got the crowd screaming for deliverance. And oh, did they deliver! Pounding out some beats with some of the best crowd-pumping music of the night, the step team set the night on fire.

More games were then played, including one where they blind folded the contestants and sent them running around on a journey to capture the two large, furry animals. The last performance before midnight was by the hip hop dance club, who also put on an invigorating performance, perfectly setting the mood for the announcement of the 2003-2004 basketball team.

As the lights dimmed, there was a roar that rose from the crowd. A video of news clips about the female and male basketball team is shown to the crowd. All of this helped build the crowds want to glorify their basketball teams. Finally the moment came. As the players burst from behind the Adelphi University basketball banners a cheer rumbled through the Adelphi gym that probably hasn't reached such high decibels in a long while. The players then set about on showing off a few of their skills, much to the crowd's pleasure.

At this moment I stepped out thinking that the whole deal was pretty much over. The rain greeted me. However, for some reason the rain had no chance in bringing me down from the high of school pride I was riding. Overall, Midnight Madness was a huge success that is very much owed to all the performers, coordinators, basketball players, and above all, the Adelphi students/fans that came out to show their school spirit. I guess that a school can truly have an awesome homecoming without a football team after all.