BYU–Hawaii students perform ice cream chants during a March 2, 2011 basketball game versus Grand Canyon University. Photo courtesy of BYU–Hawaii Photography.
March 4, 2011—Many years ago when I was a student at BYU–Hawaii, the men’s basketball team started a popular tradition. Free ice cream would be served after games to the entire arena population, if the home Seasiders scored at least 100 points in a winning effort.
Years later, the tradition still stands, but it hasn’t happened since February 3, 2010.
During the March 2, 2011 game versus the visiting Grand Canyon Antelopes—the last home game of the 2010–11 season—the Seasiders came agonizingly close to fulfilling the ice cream dreams of the 1,623 who attended. The final score: BYU–Hawaii 98, Grand Canyon 77.
During the game, as the Seasiders inched ever so closer to the century mark, the student section swelled with anticipation. Every made basket was met with a thunderous roar, as if it were the game-winning basket in a national championship game. Every missed basket provoked a painful groan.
The focus was no longer on whether or not BYU–Hawaii would win the game, it was on getting free ice cream.
Various chants broke out such as:
“Ice cream!” (clap, clap) “Ice cream!” (clap, clap)
and
“We want, we want, ICE CREAM!” (To the tune of Queen’s We Will Rock You, complete with foot stomps and hand claps)
Mind you, this behavior was not exclusive to this game alone. It has been present at the waning moments of every potential “ice cream game” since the tradition began.
During a game last year—with BYU–Hawaii needing one more basket to reach 100 points and leading by a significant amount—a visiting team caught on to what was happening and deliberately held onto the ball, refusing to take another shot during the final seconds of the game, ultimately denying the Seasiders another attempt to reach a hundred points.
The game ended, the crowd was not happy (even though the home team won), and the visiting team openly took pleasure in spoiling their fun.
In another game from a couple of years ago, BYU–Hawaii had a large lead and the reserves were inserted into the game. The crowd again was amped as the Seasiders reached 99 points. A BYU–Hawaii guard was fouled with virtually no time remaining on the clock. Two free throws were forthcoming. He had two shots to make one and the pressure was on—not to win the game, but to push the score to 100 and reward the frenzied fans with ice cream.
The crowd was going nuts and tried its hardest to keep quiet during the first free throw. He took a deep breath, aimed, shot, and missed.
A simultaneous “Noooooooo!” filled the Cannon Center followed by a chorus of disappointed laughter, and finally a return to cheers of encouragement.
The second free throw went up. The crowd screamed together with one voice, “Noooooooo!” Several Mormon approved expletives and more laughter ensued. He missed! He missed! Two chances and he couldn’t make one shot! The game ended.
The BYU–Hawaii guard (who will go unnamed) slumped in disappointment. His teammates gathered around him, laughed and offered encouragement as they made their way to the locker room. The crowd, still buzzing in disbelief over what had just happened.
Fast forward to our recent game. 34 seconds remained on the clock with BYU–Hawaii leading 98–77. The Seasiders had the last possession. The crowd was screaming in anticipation for just one more made basket.
BYU–Hawaii dribbled the ball up the court to set up a play. Then, some inaudible instructions came from the bench. The point guard with a face of disappointment and disbelief, straightened his body and dribbled casually in the corner of the court near the sideline and the half court stripe.
Every player on the court relaxed as they realized he was intent on running out the clock. The crowd was now beside itself, yelling and screaming to take one more shot, or make a move to the basket, or do something! Anything!
The buzzer went off and the game ended on this, the last home game of the season—the last chance this season for free ice cream.
Yes, the Seasiders won the game but the whole arena deflated.
I sat there in the stands and did my best to think this through. BYU–Hawaii lead by 21 points and was going to win the game regardless if they took another shot.
Would it have been wrong for BYU–Hawaii to try and score again to please their fans? Would doing such be an insult to the opposing team? Would the opposing team even care? Was BYU–Hawaii’s decision a classy move, showing respect to Grand Canyon, or was it the perfect way to avoid the cost of ice cream? Has the tradition become a distraction, or is it another great way to unify the BYU–Hawaii student body?
What do you think? Leave a comment, participate in our poll, or do both.
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I follow many different types of organizations and individuals including—of course—sports personalities who are LDS.
January 17, 2011—I recently had the thought, “How many followers do college athletics programs with large LDS populations have on social networking sites?” So, I decided to find out. The two most relevant sites are of course Facebook and Twitter. The table below represents what I’ve found. Followers on these sites fluctuate by the minute, sometimes seconds, so the numbers are accurate only at the time of this post.
