Four days before 111.3 million people watched the New England Patriots’ incredible comeback victory over the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI, a smaller crowd of just over 200 Winona State University students and numerous WinCraft employees gathered in Kryzsko Commons.
In one corner, a portion of the crowd grew restless as they waited to watch a small leather triangle slide back and forth across the table. Chants of “Olé, Olé, Olé” broke out. Not very loud chants and maybe only involving one person, but, the chants still happened. Eventually, a small leather triangle hung tenuously over the side of the table. If it stayed on the table it would be a touchdown, if it fell off the table it would be a turnover. The margin between touchdown and turnover was slimmer than the space between a real football in Julian Edelman’s hands and the turf at NRG Stadium in Houston, TX.
Sounds like fun, right? It was.
It was the championship game of the Third Annual Fiki Football Tournament, a single elimination tournament starting with a field of 32 students. At stake was a prize package of WinCraft products in the team of the winner’s choice. Maybe the prize is not quite as valuable as the Vince Lombardi Trophy, a diamond encrusted Super Bowl ring, and contractual bonuses, but, still useful when decorating an otherwise simple dorm room or apartment.
While the Third Annual Fiki Football Tournament brought great energy to one corner of Kryzsko Commons, it was not the only source of excitement. Around the Fiki Football Tournament, the rest of the 2017 WinCraft Super Bowl Experience allowed students to try their hand in a football toss, play bags, and perhaps most importantly, talk with WinCraft employees, many of whom are Winona State University alumni, about career opportunities at WinCraft and the licensed and promotional products industry as well and career advice in general. Overall, the night was a great sight to see. It was wonderful to watch students interact with their professional counterparts in a, for lack of better words, non-stuffy and fun setting.
To me, the value of nights like tonight are not immediately visible, but, worth every minute of planning and coordinating. Our jobs as faculty members are quite simple in theory: 1) create chances for our students and 2) prepare our students to take full advantage of those chances when they occur. Sounds simple, but, it can be almost impossible without help. Thankfully, we have great community and corporate partners such as WinCraft. Each year, the WinCraft Super Bowl Experience helps us connect our students to the “real world”, provides our students access to the knowledge and experience of our alumni and partners, and creates career opportunities for our students. We couldn’t have a better partner than WinCraft.
Thank you to all of our students, faculty, staff, and partners at WinCraft for making the 2017 WinCraft Super Bowl Experience a success!
Ryan White, PhD Assistant Professor Marketing Department RWhite@winona.edu