The Dunn Center has held the MudBowl on its front lawn for 17 years.

This past Sunday, Oct. 7, hundreds of people gathered on university grounds to play rounds of volleyball in the mud until a winner was chosen.

The event was tournament style including a winners’ bracket, losers’ bracket and referees to issue points.

“MudBowl is all about having fun amongst our peers and getting dirty,” senator for the College of Education, Keoshia Hudson said.

Hudson maintained as a spectator for the event but still managed to leave muddy.

The Student Government Association began this APSU tradition in 2002 when the first MudBowl was played.

The SGA Chief Justice is always in charge of supervising the details prior to the MudBowl and working the event itself.

This year’s sponsorship was by Sigma Phi Epsilon and the Catholic Student Association.

Since 2002, the event has gained much more notoriety.

Every Fall brings in new participants and new faces on the sidelines cheering for their teams.

Check-in began at noon for all interested teams. The games began around 12:30 p.m.

Temperatures were in the mid 80 degrees but students and families still came out to enjoy the festivities.

Walking to the Dunn Center lawn, cheers could be heard from the sidewalk.

Each team seemed to exercise Peay spirit during the event.

In matching t-shirts covered with mud, players from different organizations showed up in droves to showcase their athleticism in this annual event.

Eleven co-ed teams took part in getting dirty in hopes of bragging rights and a winners’ trophy.

Participants gave their all for about three hours or until their team was eliminated.

The most significant eliminating factors were a combination of the sticky mud restricting leg movement and the scorching sun beaming down on players in the pit.

There were other things to enjoy besides the volleyball tournament taking place.

Since it was a family friendly event, there were two inflatable water slides for any children and a truck selling snow cones to keep cool.

There was also pizza and water bottles given out free of charge to anyone outside.

Delvante Lawrence, a senior, watched his team from the sidelines.

Lawrence participated in the last MudBowl but stayed dry this year.

“Compared to last year there are less teams participating today,” Lawrence said.

This event featured many different activities.

There was even a fire truck parked beside the edge of the lawn to spray people off after they finish each muddy round.

Ultimately, the winner of the 2018 MudBowl was “Phamily Affair,” a team composed of members of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.

They were in close competition with the runner-up, “Life Savers”.

“It felt great to win because this was our first time ever doing the MudBowl. I’m glad we all worked together well to get that trophy,” a member of the winning team, Malik Taylor said.

Tre Edwards, another member of the winning team, stated how their objective changed from playing for fun to trying to win.

“Going into it, having fun was the main objective. After we started playing though, our competitiveness came out and we were like nah, we trying to win. So doing this for the first time and winning first place was big,” Edwards said.

Even if they did not make it to the final round, each participating team gained special memories.

There were also awards for best costumes and most spirit.

This event is an APSU tradition and is surely not one to be forgotten.