Student organizations battled during Bum Olympics, which featured events testing their balance, speed and silliness. 

Hobos ran rampant in the Volstorff Ballroom on Halloween night during Bum Olympics.

The reason? Spirit points.

The annual event featured nine teams of 10 people from residence halls and student organizations all competing against each other to gain the most spirit points for bragging rights.

“Throughout Hobo Week people can earn spirit points and Bum Olympics is just one way of doing that,” said Grand Pooba Briana Troske. “The winner of the most spirit points will be announced at Saturday’s football game at half time and win bragging rights until next year.”

The Bum Olympics was one of the events kicking off Hobo Week. It’s designed to test the athletic abilities of participants in a silly way and to have a lot of laughs, said University Program Council President Thomas Brinker.

“To sum it up, Bum Olympics is several really fast-paced relay events that test obscure and silly skills,” said Brinker.

It was close competition throughout the event. Delta Chi took home first place with 50 points overall; Sigma Phi Epsilon took second with 35 points; and the Newman Center took third with 20 points.

One of the relay events was the Dizzy Lizzy, an event where participants placed their head on a bat and spun around 10 times before they chugged a juice pouch and ran back to tag the next team member. However, the sequence most teams followed was turn around five times, fall over, get back up and spin the other five, fall over, and so on.

Sigma Phi Epsilon took home first place in this portion of the Olympics.

“The [Dizzy Lizzy] was awesome,” said Tyler Aldren of Sigma Phi Epsilon. “We take the Bum Olympics very seriously and I love how competitive it is.”

The Blanket Challenge was another portion of the Bum Olympics where participants wrapped one team member in a blanket and ran them down and back the VBR two times.

Delta Chi took a hard stumble in the first half of the relay, which sent them back to second place and allowing the Newman Center “Catholic Jacks” to win first.

Delta Chi fought back in the next event and went on to win the Tunnel Race, where team members raced down the VBR by crawling under legs and forming a human chain.

“You could dive through the first few legs but then the rest of the way was a challenge,” said Quade Klepper of Delta Chi about the Tunnel Challenge.

Although Troske said all the events are fun, she said one of the funniest portions of Bum Olympics is watching participants do Digging for Worms.

“Participants [had] to get worms out of a bucket of Jell-O using only their face,” said Troske. “It’s a funny and messy sight.”

Although all the events are silly, winning was no laughing matter when it came to participants.

“Participants always get really into it – especially those dressed up as hobos,” said Brinker. “Things got really competitive and loud. It [was] a fun time.”