Breanna Denney/ Nevada Sagebrush Freshman Alex Baglione stands near the bonfire at an open lot north of William Peccole Park on Monday, Nov. 24. Baglione said that he went out to the events to share his hatred for the University of Nevada, Reno with his fellow members of the Wolf Pack.

Breanna Denney/ Nevada Sagebrush
Freshman Alex Baglione stands near the bonfire at an open lot north of William Peccole Park on Monday, Nov. 24. Baglione said that he went out to the events to share his hatred for the University of Nevada, Reno with his fellow members of the Wolf Pack.

By Rocio Hernandez

A fire could be seen in an open lot north of the William Peccole Park Monday, Nov. 24. Surrounding the flames was a pack of wolves gathered underneath the light of the moon for the beginning of the annual Beat UNLV Week.

Approximately 250 Wolf Pack fans came together to participate in the traditional Moon Off event, at which students pull down their pants facing the south and “pay their respects” to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Because of the chilly temperature, Dalton Mack, the Associated Students of the University of Nevada programmer in charge of the week, said that a bonfire was added to the event to increase student turnout.

“I think it has a lot of potential to grow bigger and bigger in the coming years, if that’s something that the next year’s programming board wants to do,” Mack said.

Unlike past years, Beat UNLV Week was cut down to three days as the rivalry game took place during the week of  Thanksgiving. According to Mack, the ASUN programming board made the conscious decision to limit Beat UNLV Week to three days because the football game against Fresno State took place the week prior. As a result, Mack said that some aspects of Beat UNLV Week were skipped or combined into a single event, such as the Bonfire and Moon Off.

The holiday weekend also meant that there would be fewer students on campus. The Pep Rally, held on Tuesday, Nov. 25 inside the Joe Crowley Student Union ballroom, had a significantly smaller student turnout than ASUN programmers had anticipated.

The 30-minute event began with performances from the University of Nevada Marching Band and ended with a presentation by ASUN programmer Ron Delos Santos that dealt with the history of the rivalry between the Nevadan universities and explained the importance of the Fremont Cannon. Students that made it to the pep rally walked out of the ballroom with full Little Caesar pizza boxes leftover, as ASUN order enough food for 150 students, more than the number that attended.

“It ended up being really short just because of attendance, no one came to that event to begin with,” Mack said. “It was just really dead so that kind of sucked.”

UNR senior Robie Aker attends Beat UNLV Week events to see his fellow Wolf Pack fans and learn about the history of the rivalry and help fuel it. In previous years, Aker said that the weeklong events were better planned and had a great student body attendance. Although he understands that the lower numbers are likely due to the holiday weekend, he didn’t feel it measured up to past Beat UNLV Weeks.

“It should have been a two-week thing since Fresno was red too,” Aker said. “So no, it didn’t have the same effects.”

Something that Mack said that he would like to see improved for future Beat UNLV Week events would be different styles of marketing to attract more students.

Rocio Hernandez can be reached rhernandez@sagebrush.unr.edu and on Twitter @rociohdz09.