The Murray State men’s and women’s basketball teams had their annual Racer Mania on Thursday, and this year, they took a different approach to the event.
In years past, Racer Mania has been about seeing the players on the court, doing scrimmages, dunk contests, and many other games, but it was all just out of reach of the fans. This year, the Racers wanted to make it more fun and interactive for the whole family.
“For us, I know it’s always fun coming back and seeing the community,” Racers junior guard JaCobi Wood said. “Seeing all of these kids smile, that’s what keeps us going. We look forward to game days and events like this, just to give back, cause the kids keep us going, and seeing everybody happy keeps us going, so I really appreciate them here.”
To be more interactive with all of the fans that came to Racer Mania, all of the players started out on the upper concourse signing autographs and taking pictures with fans. All of that combined with an ice cream truck, a snow cone truck, and multiple goals for kids to shoot and play games on made for a fun time for the whole family.
Changing the event from something more showy and flashy to a fun event with plenty of interaction with fans seemed to be popular amongst not only the kids and their families, but the players as well.
“I think it’s really cool that we get to actually meet and they get to come up and talk for a little bit,” senior forward Katelyn Young said. “Hopefully that will encourage them to play basketball and to come out to our games. It really gathers the community together.”
The Racers will see their first action of the season when the men’s basketball team plays Brescia in the Racer Arena game at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 1. The women’s team will also play their first game of the season the following day against Lindsey Wilson College. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m.
