2008 Woodie Awards
Leaving their mark
Rock painting tradition continues
Katie Gregowicz
Issue date: 10/12/07 Section: 50th Anniversary Special Edition
"The straw that broke the camel's back was when it got stolen," Davenport said.
After the recovery of the rock, SIUE officials decided that it was too small to put back on campus without being stolen again, so it was put inside a protective glass case at the entrance to the Morris University Center. It is still there today.
Christopher Green was a sophomore at that time and a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. According to the March 10, 2003, issue of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, he "didn't want to see the tradition end." So he asked his father, who worked at the Unimin Corporation of Pevely, Mo., to donate a new rock.
His father, George Green, was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon during his time at SIUE and also hated to see the tradition "die out."
On March 14, 2003 the new limestone Rock settled into its place on the Stratton Quadrangle and a formal dedication of the Rock took place April 7, 2003.
Davenport calls the Rock "a symbol of the heart of campus." He said that a lot of big things take place around it.
"I remember after 9/11, the Rock became a memorial. People would paint it like an American flag and no one would touch it," he said. "Memorial services took place around it."
After about a month, Davenport said that students finally decided it was okay to go back to normal and paint the Rock competitively again.
"During Springfest, the Rock would literally change color every 30 seconds. As soon as one sorority or fraternity would paint it, another would paint over it," Davenport said. "Groups want to make sure that their letters are out there."
Davenport said one of the fraternities on campus, Alpha Kappa Lambda, never paints the Rock; they do other things.
"Their founders said that they would never paint the Rock because they wanted to be different from all the other fraternities," Davenport said.
Justin Montgomery, senior Speech Communications major and member of Alpha Kappa Lambda, said that his fraternity has "rubber ducked" the Rock, made it into a giant Hershey's Kiss and melted a tire onto it.
After the recovery of the rock, SIUE officials decided that it was too small to put back on campus without being stolen again, so it was put inside a protective glass case at the entrance to the Morris University Center. It is still there today.
Christopher Green was a sophomore at that time and a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. According to the March 10, 2003, issue of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, he "didn't want to see the tradition end." So he asked his father, who worked at the Unimin Corporation of Pevely, Mo., to donate a new rock.
His father, George Green, was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon during his time at SIUE and also hated to see the tradition "die out."
On March 14, 2003 the new limestone Rock settled into its place on the Stratton Quadrangle and a formal dedication of the Rock took place April 7, 2003.
Davenport calls the Rock "a symbol of the heart of campus." He said that a lot of big things take place around it.
"I remember after 9/11, the Rock became a memorial. People would paint it like an American flag and no one would touch it," he said. "Memorial services took place around it."
After about a month, Davenport said that students finally decided it was okay to go back to normal and paint the Rock competitively again.
"During Springfest, the Rock would literally change color every 30 seconds. As soon as one sorority or fraternity would paint it, another would paint over it," Davenport said. "Groups want to make sure that their letters are out there."
Davenport said one of the fraternities on campus, Alpha Kappa Lambda, never paints the Rock; they do other things.
"Their founders said that they would never paint the Rock because they wanted to be different from all the other fraternities," Davenport said.
Justin Montgomery, senior Speech Communications major and member of Alpha Kappa Lambda, said that his fraternity has "rubber ducked" the Rock, made it into a giant Hershey's Kiss and melted a tire onto it.
Be the first to comment on this story