Northwest Missouri State University - Tower Yearbook (Maryville, MO)

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Hand Off Joel Osborn gives the ball to Xavier Omen during the game against Washburn. Omen finished the game with 143 rushing yards on 32 carries. Photo by Chris Lee Winners End Phi Mu Alpha and Sigma Alpha Iota finish their homecoming skit. Thev won highly competitive skit during the 2007 Homecoming activities. Photo by Jessica Nelson homecoming 270 DD

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(Continued from page 24) ■ FOOTBALL VERSUS WASHBURN ■ In front of 8,325 fans, the Washburn Ichabods came to Bearcat Stadium looking to crush the hopes of a Homecoming victory. Thanks to a 19 yard touchdown pass from Joel Osborn to Kendall Wright on fourth-and-eight play in the final minute, the Bearcats beat Washburn 28-27. The win, not only a great Homecoming victory, would also give the Bearcats a share of the MIAA championship. Words can not express how happy I am, head coach Mel Tjeerdsma said, Conference championship, I even forgot about that. Dallas (Flynn) had to remind me after the game. Tjeerdsma ' s words rang true in the ears of many who witnessed the tightly played game. It was the first time the Bearcats had trailed at halftime of a home game since 2003. Senior linebacker, Jared Erspamer, was given the Don Black Award for his performance in the game. Erspamer recorded 13 tackles against the Ichabods and was named MVP. Tjeerdsma was very proud of the way the Bearcats rallied late in the fourth quarter when behind with just minutes remaining. The good thing was we had just about three minutes. Obviously we had to score a touchdown. We had a great Shots Fired kickoff return. That set us up because that allowed us to stay out of our two minute offense. It allowed us to do things we were really comfortable with and we were able to call plays and use our time outs, Tjeerdsma said. ■ SHOTS FIRED • Just as many students were heading home from their nighttime Homecoming activities and crawling away from the bar an event to land on headlines all over the U.S. occurred. Shortly before midnight on Saturday shots were fired outside of The Station during the Black and Gold Pageant. Local law enforcement and campus safety officers rushed to the scene and soon word spread throughout campus. Students were alerted through e-mail and campus wide alarm systems. The warnings and e-mails asked students to stay put and the campus was put under lock down. Law enforcement officers began scanning the campus and conducting room searches for two persons of interest. The campus and community were put on the look out for the two suspects, African-American males wearing green hooded sweatshirts with dreadlocks. By 6:36 a.m. the active alarm systems had been turned off and campus residents and guests were finally able to sleep. The only damage sustained was to vehicles parked near The Station no people were injured. I was Homecoming chair for my sorority and hadn ' t gotten any sleep Friday night because of getting everything ready for the parade, Hannah Boehner said. I live off campus but went to stay the night in Roberta Hall because I knew my roommates would keep me up. Then the alarms started going off and never stopped. I still didn ' t get any sleep. A week after the incident, no arrests had been made in connection with the shootings. • NIGHT LIFE • Homecoming can seem like prime time party time for many who choose to indulge. Many of the bars offer extended hours and drink specials to draw customers. The Outback hosted the 18 annual Kegs and Eggs. Starting at 6 a.m. on Saturday, Ted and Evonne White of Chris Cakes provided a breakfast buffet to go along with the early bird drink specials. Burny ' s opened their doors at 8 a.m. for biscuits and gravy. They also offered a shuttle bus to transport those that had chosen to participate in their drink specials to the football game. Many students, like Hager, chose house parties to the crowded bars but either way still had a great time. w ■ Megan Tilk d • Erik Schrader Campus Safety and Maryville Public Safety officers stand in the parking lot near The Station. Shots were fired around midnight on Saturday. PIiolo by Scott Levine D26 DD student life

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phasing out Bobby Bearcat through the ages After 91 years, the University had phased out the cartoon logo of the school ' s symbol, the Bearcat. Focusing marketing efforts towards the bearcat paw displaying an N in the center, officials in the University ' s ath- letic department did away with the logo of Bobby Bearcat wearing a sweatshirt. Since everyone who are fans or alumni and people who know North- west, the one thing that they think of is the paw, even though Bobby is an athletic symbol as well, Morris White, athletic marketing, promotions and licensing said. The paw is the most recognizable thing when you talk about athletics or not. The University trademarked both the Bobby Bearcat logo and the paw logo to avoid infringement. Phasing out the Bearcat logo gradu- ally began in 2006. White said phasing out the Bobby Bearcat logo eliminated confusion over the primary logo for Northwest athletics. When news broke to eliminate the logo. University students and members of the Maryville community, were not happy to see it go. That ' s not even cool, Mason Becker said. Bobby Bearcat ' s our mas- cot, they can ' t just take away the symbol of him. Word spread fast prompting two groups on facebook.com and a Web site, savebobby.com. The Facebook group Bobby Stays or We Go saw over 1,000 members in 24 hours and over 2,100 members total. The mass attention over the situa- tion sparked a visit by White and athlet- ics director Bob Boerigter at a University student senate meeting. Boerigter began the presentation by acknowledging the positive and nega- tive feedback he had received about the controversial decision. It doesn ' t make a difference if the issues are large or small; people care, Boerigter said. KQ2, a St. Joseph TV news station and a handful of students attended the meeting. Nic Brent, questioned the athletic department ' s judgment on the decision. I just feel like [the Bobby logo] has been such a big part of our tradition, and 1 don ' t understand why suddenly there ' s such a need to get rid of it, Brent said. Given the events surrounding the phasing out of the cartoon Bobby Bearcat logo. University President Dean Hubbard said he supported Boerigter and the department ' s decision to move forward. Anytime you deal with symbols, then the very first reaction to a symbol or a change in a symbol, is an emotional one, Hubbard said. Hubbard said this is a non-issue since cartoon Bobby Bearcat was not be- ing eliminated completely. Bobby Bearcat will still be around and presumably over time, the costume will change, and people will draw, dif- ferent artists will draw different render- ings of what a bearcat would look like, Hubbard said. w • Evan Young and Dominic Genetti d ■ Erik Schrader 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 028 ■ student life