A homecoming week would not be complete without a pep rally. Even in a far from normal homecoming week, UCA and the UCA Bear’s Den still managed to put one together virtually on Tuesday, October 27th.

The pep rally was held in the Farris Center, but with extremely limited people. In response to attendance restrictions, UCA Channel 6 live streamed the pep rally on Vimeo.

The pep rally began at 6:30 and lasted until just past 7:00. Tajaro Hudson, the Assistant Director of Student Life, initiated the pep rally, handing the microphone over to speakers such as President Houston Davis, Athletic Director Brad Teague, and Football Head Coach Nathan Brown.

“I’d estimate about 70 people being there.”, Hudson said. “I believe the live stream went well. There were about 1300 students that joined that stream which is on par with how many would be at the pep rally if it was in person. I am glad that we were able to do this event.”

After the initial speakers, Hudson went through an itinerary for the homecoming festivities for the rest of the homecoming week.

One of the main attractions for students to tune into the pep rally was for the chance to win prizes. There were three trivia questions that students had the opportunity to answer for prizes.

It was explained to the live stream audience that students can only participate if they were following the UCA Bear’s Den on Instagram, and they must directly message the Bear’s Den Instagram the answer.

Prize were not announced initially, students had to play and win to find out.

The first person to message the right answer would win. The first trivia question was “What year was UCA founded?”. The second trivia question asked was “Who was the 11th president of UCA?”.

Following the second question was Director of Student Life Jacob Ternes and President of the Bear Den Kathryn Walden explaining the homecoming photo scavenger hunt.

The two explained that there were five locations on campus that students must take pictures at to win.

To find the hint for the first location, check out the Bear’s Den Instagram page. Students must take a picture at each location and post it on Instagram with the hashtag “ARoaringGoodTime” as well as tag the Bear’s Den in the post. The scavenger hunt had first, second, and third winners.

The third and final trivia question was “Name one of the three previous names of the University of Central Arkansas.”.

“I love being able to give out prizes to students. It is a way to interact with them and get them involved in whatever it is we are doing. It also helps students to come out of their shells because they’d love the opportunity to win a prize,” Hudson said,

Both the UCA Cheer and UCA Dance teams had their own performances during the pep rally, and the 3rd annual banner competition winner was announced to be Alpha Sigma Tau.

The rally concluded with the introduction of the nominees for homecoming king and queen. Last year’s homecoming king and queen then announced who the final contestants were for Saturday at the football game.