AP NCAA Basketball
| Victory bell at BG returns (09-07-12) |
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| Written by THOMAS SCHMELTZ Sentinel Sports Writer | ||
| Friday, 07 September 2012 09:20 | ||
'Old Alpha,' the victory bell for the BGSU football team, is making its return to the sidelines for home football games. The bell makes its season debut as BG takes on Idaho in its home-opener. Kickoff is Saturday at 7 p.m. at Doyt Perry Stadium. The bell, which belongs to the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity at BGSU, is coming back after a 15-year hiatus, after the fraternity had left campus in 1996. The ATO chapter returned to BGSU in 2006 and last fall, thanks to many alumni, the bell was found, and talks of restoring the tradition began. "When I and a couple brothers heard about it, we jumped right on it," said David Arnold, president of the ATO chapter at BGSU. Dick Eastop, an ATO alumni, challenged other alumni at an ATO reunion in the fall of 2011, to start a new bell fund. And they did. With 23 brothers in attendance at the reunion, over $3,000 was raised to help locate, clean and complete any maintenance the bell might need, according to Arnold. The bell's tradition is a long-standing and interesting one. It begin in 1957 when members of the ATO put a small bell on a 15-foot poll and rang it following every BG victory. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s the tradition was turned up a notch and the bell was rung after every BG score. As for this season, Arnold said the bell will be rung, not only after scores, but also after victories. In 1961, the original bell was lost and replaced by a new bell, thanks to Glen Perry, a member of the spring pledge class, who found a rather large bell in his hometown of Spencerville, Ohio. The ATO named the new 2,290 pound bell 'Old Alpha' and the name has stuck around ever since. In the late 1960s, the second bell cracked and was again replaced by a new bell, which is the bell seen today. The bell's colors may confuse people at first, as they closely resemble the school colors of the University of Toledo, BG's arch-rival. But the colors are simply the colors of the ATO fraternity, Arnold said. The bell will also be seen around campus at different events put on by members of the ATO. "We want people to see the bell and recognize that it's us," said Arnold, who also is a student video coordinator of the football team at BGSU. "It was really cool to see it on both sides, to get it back on the football field and to get it back in the fraternity, Arnold said. |
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