Spartan Athletic Training Traditions
Spartan Athletic Training has a number of traditions that have been handed down through the generations and continue to be handed down each year. The various events allow the students and staff to intermingle in a more social atmosphere, and helps develop lasting friendships between fellow Spartans. Spartan Athletic Trainers are not only respected for their professionalism and skills, but because they also know how to have fun when the time is right. The traditions are only a few of the many reasons that make Michigan State a special place to work and learn. The traditions help foster the family like atmosphere that many Spartans feel by working and getting their educations at Michigan State. Below you will find descriptions and pictures of some of our more well known traditions, we hope you will enjoy them as much as we do.
Spartan Fight Song
It has been an ongoing tradition that all first year members of the Spartan Sports Medicine community sing the Spartan Fight Song at the end of the year picnic. This includes first year undergraduate students, graduate students, staff, physicians and all others. You are shunned if you have not learned the fight song by the end of your first year. The Spartan Fight Song is also famed for dominating the fight song challenge at the Big Ten alumni party at the NATA convention in 1999. With the largest alumni turnout, the Spartans' bellowing could be heard throughout the convention hall in Kansas City. To see Spartans singing the fight song at the 1997 NATA convention click the thumbnail above.
Music is part of the Michgan State tradition, so please take a few moments and listen to the sounds of MSU with "Spartans Are We" , "From the Campus " and the beautiful MSU Shadows.
Annual Golf Outing
At the crack of dawn each spring, you will find four man scramble teams running amuck throughout the frosty fairways of Forest Akers Golf Course. Who will be teamed up with who is the talk for weeks prior to the event. The scramble is said to be for fun, but do not tell that to the Spartans, as there is often fierce competition to claim the coveted 1st place prize. Jeff is known as a skilled and fierce competitor who's play is feared by many, so if you find yourself playing to the right or left of him, watch out, as it may be raining golf balls. Other prizes include those for closest to the hole, shortest drive, longest drive, longest put etc. Weather is not a factor, rain, sleet or snow, you will find the Spartans slashing up the frosty fairways. Check back this spring for pictures of the event.
Spring Picnic
The spring picnic is held each year following the annual golf outing. This is when the first year people have to step up and sing the Spartan Fight Song. It is also when Jeff grills up some yard bird for everyone to eat. Usually a pot luck sort of affair, the food is good and plentiful. Keeping with their competitive nature, the Spartans will play softball or something similar at the picnic. Following dinner, the golf outing prizes and the Ray Saltzman and David Hough awards are presented. Throughout the picnic, any quiet that might ensue is brought to an end by the familiar clapping of T-Mac leading the Spartan Fight Song. The picnic is brought to a close by the first year people singing the fight song with no help from the veterans.
Annual BroomBall Match
Each winter, students and staff descend upon Munn Ice Arena for the annual broom ball match up. Loose teeth, bruised shins and bloody lips are common in this free for all. Good thing there are thirty or more athletic trainers and physicians there to patch up the wounds. The broom ball match has been a student favorite for years, and is organized by the hockey student athletic trainer (actually Dave C. sets it up but the student takes credit). The game usually follows a Spartan hockey game sometime in the fall semester. This year, after a months worth of e-mail trash-talk, the Staff/Grads and Undergrads put on a very great game. In an impressive performance, the Undergraduates took back what was theirs with a 2-1 victory.
Annual Alumni Reunion
Present and past Spartan athletic trainers gather and reunite once a year at the NATA convention. Classmates and staff can gather to share and laugh about their escapades while at MSU. The affair is hosted each year by Alumnus Ronnie Barnes of the New York Giants....thanks Ronnie! The Spartan reunion party is famed for the large turnouts of alumni that go out of their way to attend each year. It is rumored that the Spartan athletic training reunion party was the first of it's kind, and is now copied by many other universities.