Photograph By Timothy P. Riethmiller
By Gabe Bain
Every year on the Friday before finals week, silence rings across Odle Arena, but only for a short time. Once the 10th point is scored, the crowd erupts into madness, making the game one of the most famous college traditions around. During the past two years, the tradition of Silent Night has grown significantly, grabbing the interest of many across the country. It is easy to see the attention garnered by Silent Night, but many do not notice the hard work and preparation that goes into making this highly publicized event a national story. Silent Night began in 1995 and has gone through a few transformations. But those modifications are small compared to the changes that have occurred over the past two years. With many media sources showing a strong interest in Silent Night, the athletic department had to make some adjustments. "We get a lot of feedback from a lot of people," said Co-Sports Information Director (Co-SID) Ted Bowers. "Five years ago it wasn't like that. We just came. We had a good time. it was a great night, and then it was over." Now the preparation of Taylor's biggest event of the year is more thought out and requires a lot of time and even more attention to detail. The reason Silent Night has become such a big event recently is because of innovation within the athletic department. Cam Andry, who has served as assistant SID, golf coach and Co-SID, made Silent Night more tangible and easier to share upon his arrival to Taylor. "It's not nearly as cool when it's described on paper," Andry said. "To be able to have a video that you can share extremely quickly and with one click of a button somebody can retweet . . . . It grows like wildfire." Many hours were put into the making of the Silent Night videos, which allowed the past two Silent Night games to circulate among the many media sources covering the event. "Silent Night has been around for about 20 years," said former SID Eric Smith, "and no one has really put the time in to really put together a well constructed video. (Last year's video) was really crucial in the success (of Silent Night) and getting some of that national media coverage." Anticipation is high for the amount of people who will discover or hear about Silent Night through social media. Because of this, many hours are spent pushing Silent Night to the media in hopes of attracting the same amount or more interest than the years prior. "We started tweeting the video out and slowly people started picking it up," Andry said. "For two weeks (there) was a different media entity every day running with it." This year, the media requests have been coming in strongly from major media and news outlets. The coverage of Silent Night has mostly occurred after the game, but this year there is a higher anticipation, forcing news outlets to acquire information beforehand. CBS Sports called earlier this week asking to receive the video of the game first, hoping to be the major news source to break with coverage of the event. The Wall Street Journal is also covering Silent Night with an in-depth piece of the game that runs today. "Ted (Bowers) set up interviews with Patterson and most of the players," Andry said. "From our end we just kind of take it one step at a time. We try to be the bridge so our coaches and student athletes aren't bombarded with things this time of year." The preparation for Silent Night is not all fixated on getting media attention, though. For many in the athletic department, the main focus is on the game itself. Bowers said a high priority of Silent Night is to remember it is a basketball game and all the logistics of such must be taken care of first. Smith had similar thoughts as he thought back on his preparation for Silent Night as SID. "We were very responsible for all games, just from an event management standpoint," Smith said. During Silent Night, the athletic department organizes the Samaritan's feet promotion, writes a script for the PA announcer and honors the NAIA scholar athletes, among many other activities. Another aspect of preparing for such a large event compared to other games is safety. "As a department we have to think strategically about 'OK, how do we keep players safe?'" Andry said. "For example, last year we had a camera guy that ran out onto the floor during the game." In preparing for the game itself, small changes are always going to be made because of the dramatic change in excitement and the size of the crowd, which makes this game more unique than any other college sports tradition. Taylor's campus has always known that Silent Night was special. But it needed something more. Taylor's SIDs and others from the athletic department put in the effort and time to give it that push. "It doesn't just happen," Smith said. "I think a lot of people think it is a viral thing, and that is not the case. There was a lot of hard work by our staff to make sure it got in front of a lot of people."
