Big Blue Madness is a way of UK life

I camped out for Big Blue Madness. Big Blue Madness is the first public basketball practice for the University of Kentucky’s Men’s and Women’s basketball teams. While a practice like this at many other universities would go unnoticed by people who do not live in or near the college town, big blue madness is a completely different story. People from all over the state and neighboring states come to Lexington to fight for campsites where they camp out (in tent city) for three days in order to receive tickets to this free event.

I am from St. Louis, and while my mom is a UK College of Ag alumni, I had never heard of this event until I came to school here last year and witnessed the madness with my own eyes. The madness I mean is seeing these people fighting one another for spots in tent city at 5 in the morning on Wednesday to camp on the UK campus and sit there for three days. I initially thought to myself that these people were crazy, but as I attended basketball games throughout last year I saw that they weren’t crazy, but that they were loyal. After experiencing the basketball games last year and the amazing recruit team we have this year I knew that I wanted to become one of the “crazy” loyal fans that got tickets to Big Blue Madness. 

With that in mind my friends and I woke up at 3 am that Wednesday to stand in line until 5 am where we dashed across Avenue of Champions to steak our tents before someone else grabbed our spot. We were there all day and only left to go to class; work; back to the apartment to make food, shower, etc. While camping in tent city I was surrounded by other people who had the same passion as I did. We were a small community who all bonded and got along because we all were loyal, and we all cared for the family that makes up Big Blue Nation. These people had a passion for watching Kentucky basketball and for believing in our team and the success they could have this year. These people were willing to miss work, to give up running water, to survive away from their house and live in a tent for the sole purpose of getting tickets to a basketball practice. Living in Mizzou territory I could tell you that many Mizzou fans would never even think of doing this and this fact is one of the few important reasons why I chose the University of Kentucky.

Katlyn is majoring in Agricultural Biotechnology and is from St. Louis, MO.