Every year epic: North Greenville University’s history and traditions
Solomon Palmer, Staff Writer
Photo courtesy of NGU archives
Founded in 1891, North Greenville University has brought life and community to quiet Tigerville for 135 years. With such a long and rich history bringing people from all walks of life in one place, NGU is bound to form its own quirky customs. From Family Weekend to Late Night Breakfast, NGU finds new ways to stave off boredom every day.
While student life looks different every semester, the calendar is always populated with flagship traditions that students can routinely look forward to, such as welcome back parties and a week full of homecoming events in October.
With a completely new student body every four years, it is only natural for the traditions to be capricious with the times, and most enriching to the current students. This variety and vibrancy guarantees that no two graduating classes have the same experiences and memories.
It is not only the student body that cycled in and out, but the unifying identity for themselves. While the current body is to graduate under the Trailblazer name, they have fellow alumni under the Crusaders, Mounties, Black Window Spiders and the original Moonshiners. All these names united Christ-centered students seeking a higher education in Tigerville.
It’s May 1st, 1952. Neves is the campus dining hall, Foster doubled as a bomb shelter and Mildred Leopard has been crowned May Day Queen. The school identity at the time was the Black Widow Spiders since 1950, and would rebrand to the Mounties just a year later. Under this banner, the school’s publication was known as The Web to stay on the arachnid brand.
From 1947-1965, NGU closed out its spring semesters with May Day, a European tradition brought by settlers to America. To celebrate the halfway mark to the summer solstice, NGU students would dance around the maypole and put on themed entertainment for the crowned queen of the ceremony.
Fast-forward to 1980s. Mountain Dew was just in its early 20s, not unlike the students participating in a PepsiCo-sponsored Mounties Dew Run, a convenient play on words with the contemporary team name. NGU’s long partnership with Pepsi had more benefits than just drink options in the dining hall. Back when NGU’s community was called the Mounties, this sponsored fun-run gave 1-mile, 5k and 10k joggers a refreshing electric-green nectar to look forward to at the end of the October excursion.
Another fall festivity that has come and gone is NGU’s own Oktoberfest. A (dry) campus event, also hailing from Europe, brought some levity to the midterm madness. Mounties would wear their Bavarian best and briefly forget the impending doom of finals season.
Alumni of all ages reminisce fondly of all the culture that made NGU what it was, both formal and unofficial. Christopher Lewers, a class of 2008 Sports Management major, made some of his best memories before reviewing the first syllabus.
While earning his Bachelors degree, Christopher Lewers was a football player for the formally-named Crusaders, and as such would move in almost a week before freshman.
“For a few days it was just us athletes, no classes or games, just training and getting to know one another,” Christoper Lewers recalls. “We had access to the Hayes Gym and would run basketball almost every night the whole semester, and arriving early gave us a lot more time to do that that first week.”
Tessa Lewers, a junior in Psychology and legacy student attending her father’s alma mater, loves NGU’s tradition of consistent art and culture consumption through PALS events.
“I don’t always like how engaging with the arts is mandatory, but I doubt I would have engaged with so much art otherwise.” Tessa Lewers shares her dearest NGU tradition.
NGU makes an effort of exposing its students to the best that the world has to offer, whether through Global Impact Week, or simply an evening on their new town with Freshman Night Out.
“I feel like the openness to the larger world helps students from all backgrounds to call NGU home, and exposes the students to more than we would [seek out] our own.”
However, not all campus culture has an enriching history. The Welcome Week Trailblazers know and love was once known as Rat Week, and permeated into the mid-70s. The freshman of yesteryear were not greeted by a horde of volunteers to carry their mini-fridges, rather they made upperclassmen more comfortable.
Forced to wear identifying headgear the freshman, or “rats,” were forced into menial housekeeping for returning students’ dorms. Instead of practicing for talent shows, incoming students scrubbed the dormitory floors with toothbrushes. This unsanctioned tradition all boiled over when, allegedly, male freshman were getting pressured to streak all the way to the lake and back. In 1975, Rat Week was officially banned, with the Stop Hazing Act of 2024 further decreasing the chance (or upperclassmens’ hopes) of it returning.
While alumnus Christopher Lewers loved the camaraderie of early move-in and virtual football tournaments, he holds superior one NGU tradition that offered anchoring among the stress and distraction of college life.
“I believe NGU’s most important [tradition] is chapel. You’re suddenly given all this freedom away from home. And when the world pulls you in different directions, it is important to stay grounded in your faith.”
Ultimately, it is the people that make NGU’s vibrant and deep history. Without them, the Mounties Dew Run would not have its runners, nor would students line up out the Todd Dining Hall doors for the annual homecoming dance. NGU organizes the events, but it is the students that make every day epic.
