By Kara Thompson
At 11:15 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 18, University of Maryland students lined up outside Ludwig Field, where the annual Midnight Mile would start less than an hour later to kick off the 2022-2023 basketball season.
The tradition all started in 1971 when then Head Coach Lefty Driesell made his players line up a little after midnight on Oct. 15, the first day the basketball team could start practicing that year. NCAA men’s basketball rules dictate a start date for practices that varies from year to year but is somewhere in mid-October.
In the years since, a similar midnight event has become a staple for colleges and students across the country, according to Maryland athletics.
Seniors Alex Giblin and Alex Friedman were dressed in workout clothes and staying warm in the line entering the field, gearing up for the big run.
“It’s kind of our tradition,” said Giblin, an international business and communications double major.
“We ran it together every year since freshman year and we’re seniors now,” said Friedman, an atmospheric and oceanic science major. “So one last midnight run.”
Though Friedman is on the club running team, he treats the Midnight Mile as just a fun activity for him and his friends. Giblin, however, embraces Friedman’s running background.
“I’m cheering him on; I’m hoping he’s lapping people,” she said.
Their favorite memory was getting to meet members of the basketball team last year.
“We took pictures with the players last year and the pictures were so awful, like they didn’t even get like half of our friends in the picture,” Giblin said. “But we were in it.”
In an unusual move, Traighe Rouse, who’s in his second year of the masters program, dressed in a taco costume for his first ever Midnight Mile.
“[My friend] sent it in the group chat, I had a moment of weakness … I said, yes, I’ll do it, and I’ll do it in a taco suit,” he said.
And how did the taco suit idea come up?
“I just happen to have a taco suit,” Rouse said. “I’m a really slow runner. I said, ‘If I can’t be fast, then I’m going to be funny.’”
The event was started with words from Head Coach Kevin Willard before the stadium lights began flashing at 12:03 a.m., signaling the start of the race. Willard thanked everyone for showing up, and expressed excitement for the upcoming season.
Along with the running of the mile, the event featured free T-shirts for the first 250 students to arrive. There was also free Ledo Pizza and water bottles for runners upon finishing their fourth lap.
And, as always, the basketball team was there, allowing students the opportunity to talk and take pictures with them.
“We’re going, we’re ready for a good time,” said Giblin, before she and Friedman walked over to get their bibs and line up for the race.
Featured Image: Students gather on the Kehoe Track at Ludwig Field in preparation for the kick-off of the mile run on Oct. 18, 2022. Photo by Kara Thompson.