Tennessee Tech Archives and Special Collections will host the Watergate Roach Race Tuesday to connect students with a fun piece of University history.
Director Megan Atkinson said the race will commemorate Watergate Day, a University holiday recognized four decades ago. Atkinson said student organizations will register racing roaches with an accompanying name, backstory, listed training regimen and racing history. Atkinson said she hopes the event will provide a novel experience for the student body.
“I’m hoping that it runs smooth, that we aren’t chasing cockroaches through the stadium trying to find them and that everyone just goes into their little lane and runs the race successfully,” Atkinson said. “And everyone has a bunch of laughs, and maybe a couple of icks.”
Atkinson said the University’s Oracle newspaper focused attention on “Watergate” in 1986. The cockroach won the Great American Bug Race at Palm Beach Atlantic College in West Palm Beach, Florida. Atkinson said the newspaper staff banded together to help boost low moral surrounding struggling Tech athletic teams.
Atkinson said after the victory, Watergate was immediately eaten by a lizard.
Golden Eagle Marching Band Announcer Bob Luna will provide announcements for the event. Atkinson said the race will broadcast to the stadium jumbo-tron. Atkinson said she hopes the race makes students aware of University history, while allowing them to create new traditions based off of old ones.
“Just tongue-and-cheek, just being funny, they had a memorial service, they wore black armbands, they bought a cake, they retired a jersey, someone wrote a rap song,” Atkinson said. “And the news story itself reached everywhere. And even I can’t remember, some major papers. Our cockroach is pretty famous.”
Atkinson said stories that connect with the student body survive over time. Atkinson said stories like “Dammit the Dog” and the “Shinny Ninny” totem rivalry between Tech and Middle Tennessee State University are stories about students, for students.
“All of these stories that kind of hang on are the ones that I think really make people laugh,” Atkinson said.
