University sophomore Tim Christeck, a Kappa Sigma fraternity member, runs on Highway 99 for the Game Ball Run on Saturday.
Old rivalries die hard, especially when they are based on the line of tension connecting the University and Oregon State University on Civil War weekend.
Kappa Sigma fraternity, however, managed to soften that line with its 11th annual Game Ball Run on Saturday morning, raising more than $4,000 for the American Red Cross with the OSU Kappa Sigma house.
The 52-mile-run from OSU’s Reser Stadium to Autzen Stadium brings together the brother-yet-rival fraternities in the name of philanthropy. Members of the two houses connect the rival stadiums by carrying a symbolic Civil War game ball as they travel on foot along state Highway 99.
The event began Friday afternoon when the OSU fraternity members completed the 26 miles from Corvallis to Junction City. It then started up again at 7:30 a.m. Saturday with a handoff to the members of the Eugene house, who ran the final 26 miles to Autzen Stadium.
The University house raised $1,800 of the total from friends, family and local businesses, who all pledged to support the cause, University Kappa Sigma philanthropy chairman Richard Keymolen said. He added that he expects more money to trickle in this week.
“Besides the fact that we’re donating money to a good cause, there’s the physical aspect of the run that is so great,” Eugene Kappa Sigma President Drew Wedeking said. “It takes everybody to pull it off. You can’t run 26 miles without 20-some guys.”
Twenty-five brothers participated, more than half of the members in the house. Each participant ran one to one-and-a-half miles.
The brothers braved below-freezing temperatures and the heavy, Beaver-filled traffic along the highway to bring in the ball. Their green and yellow colors drew many honks, but there were few other problems on the early morning run, said Adam Crowell, assistant philanthropy chairman for the University’s chapter.
“One of the brothers dropped the ball on a handoff and it almost got run over because it was rolling around in traffic, but otherwise it was pretty smooth,” Crowell said.
Though the brothers didn’t get to run the ball onto the field this year as they have in the past, they did get to hear an announcement about their accomplishment before the game started.
They also had the satisfaction of watching their team beat the OSU members’ football team.
“Some of them sat in the student section with us, and when we scored we’d look over and just remind them where they were,” Crowell said. “We’re brothers, though. There’s no animosity between us.”
Nika Carlson is a freelance reporter for the Emerald.