07 SOUTH DAKOTA STATE - South Dakota State University Athletics

South Dakota State University
You Can Go Anywhere From Here
—Weary Wil was introduced as part of the
Hoby Day celebration in 1950. Since then, SDSU has
been graced with his presence each year. His female
counterpart, Dirty Lil, was introduced during the 1976
festivities.
tournaments and is the only facility in South Dakota
to house a sheet of ice during the summer.
Summer also brings the annual Brookings
Summer Arts Festival. The two-day event has over
200 artists booths, nearly 40 food booths, 16 historic
booths and 10 antique booths. In addition to the
booths, there are children’s activities, a living history
area, and entertainment on four stages.
Jackrabbit Athletics
South Dakota State University currently offers 21
varsity sports with Jackrabbit teams competing at
the NCAA Division I level .As of July 1, 2007, the
South Dakota State Athletics Department joined The
Summit League for all sports with the exception of
football, wrestling, and equestrian.
Football has competed in the Championship
Subdivision Great West Football Conference and
will continue to in the 2007 season before leaving
to make a new home in The Gateway Conference
beginning with the 2008 season.
The wrestling program was a founding member
of the Western Wrestling Conference and continues
to complete there while the women’s equestrian
team is a member of Varsity Equestrian.
The 2007-08 school year marks the first for
South Dakota State University in The Summit League,
formerly known as the Mid-Continent Conference,
and is the Jacks final season as a reclassifying
school. SDSU will be NCAA tournament eligible in all
sports beginning in the 2008-09 school year.
Currently South Dakota State University offers
varsity sports in the following:
Evolution of a Nickname
There are two theories as to how and why the
jackrabbit nickname evolved. The most common
belief is that the name “Jackrabbits” came from
a story and a cartoon sketch that appeared in a
Minneapolis newspaper following a 1905 football
game between the University of Minnesota and
South Dakota State College, as the university was
then known. A reporter for the newspaper, knowing
of the preponderance of jackrabbits in the Brookings
area, was believed to have written that the SDSC
team was as quick as jackrabbits. May people
believe that the school adopted the Jackrabbits as
its official nickname from that beginning.
The other theory about the origin of the nickname
is given in The Jackrabbit, SDSU’s yearbook. There is
a poem in the 1907 yearbook that puts forth the idea
that the yearbook is called The jackrabbit because a
group of juniors wished to immortalize themselves
by changing the name of the yearbook. Athletic
teams followed in suit by adopting the nickname.
Prior to the adoption of the Jackrabbit nickname,
school athletic teams were known as the Barn Yard
Cadets as SDSU was knows as South Dakota State
College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts in 1907.
Hobo Day
Each year the university’s homecoming celebration
is celebrated by Hobo Day.
The festivities include dressing up according
to the years’ theme, a parade, a Homelycoming
Pageant, and much more. The event dates back to
Nov. 2, 1912, when the first Hobo Day appeared at
the then South Dakota State College.
Today, the festivities include Weary Wil and Dirty
Lil, who were introduced to the celebration in 1950
and 1976, respectively.
The Bummobile, a 1912 Model T Ford, was
donated to the college in 1939 and can occasionally
be seen around the city throughout the year.
Each year the celebration is capped off with
the Hobo Day football game at Coughlin Alumni
Stadium.
Since the inception of Hobo Day, only one
football game has not been played. In 1918 there
was no game due to the first World War.
Some in formation for this section is courtesy of SDSU, the City of Brookings, the
Brookings Summer Arts Festival and Downtown Brookings Inc.
—The 70-acre McCrory Gardens and South Dakota Arboretum are
located south and east of SDSU’s campus. The gardens provide a beautiful setting for
area residents and tourists to enjoy a stroll through the radian colors and fragrances of
one of the top 10 small ornamental gardens in the nation.
—Named after former Jackrabbit coach and athletic director R.B. “Jack”
Frost, Frost Arena serves as the home to SDSU basketball, volleyball and wrestling. The
first game at Frost Arena was played on Feb. 2, 1973, and has served as the site for
numerous high school and collegiate championship caliber events since.
2007 South Dakota State Women’s Soccer Media Guide 55