17th Annual Oozfest to be Held Saturday at UB

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- If you're into mud, the place to be on April 28 will be the 17th Annual Oozfest, North America's largest mud-volleyball tournament, to be held at the University at Buffalo.

The dirty event will be played out from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Mud Pit on St. Rita's Lane behind the UB Stadium on the North (Amherst) Campus.

It is sponsored by the University Student Alumni Board (USAB), the student affiliate of the UB Alumni Association.

Some 800 serious players on 96 teams from universities throughout the Northeast and Western Ontario, as well as a few hardy UB alumni, will compete in the event.

Spectators who feel the urge to merge with the mud can enter and win special prizes in events other than volleyball, including a tug-of-war, dizzy bat spin races, a mud obstacle course and a slip-and-slide competition.

A new attraction for spectators who come "clean" and want to stay that way will be a rock-climbing wall from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., courtesy of First USA Bank.

Proceeds will benefit the J. Scott Fleming Scholarship Awards and other USAB projects for students.

Among the Oozfest competitors will be teams sporting imaginative monikers like Start Spreading the Ooze, Madame Cleo's Mud Slingers, The Flying Pierogies, and Granimals.

It's the 12th Oozfest for crowd favorite Poached Trout in a White Wine Sauce, a team of UB alumni from Washington, D.C., Virginia and Texas who have in the past sported creative, if outlandish, uniforms ranging from Santa Claus suits to formal evening wear.

KISS 98.5 will provide giveaways, entertainment, music and a disc jockey from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The Oozfest Mud Pit is prepared by University Facilities and watered down for mud to the max by the Getzville Fire Department.

UB student Matthew Fleischmann designed the official 2001 T-shirt, featuring a mud-splattered volleyball, net and Oozfest logo dripping an outline of -- what else? - mud.

Oozfest sponsors include Krispy Kreme, Santora's and the UB Faculty Student Association.

Supporting sponsors are Anderson's Frozen Custard, Buffalo Zoological Gardens, Dick's Sporting Goods, Domino's Pizza, First USA Bank, Hooters, Kaplan Co., The Princeton Review, Target, Undergraduate Student Association, University Print & Mail Services, Sal's Pizzaria, The College Store, Buffalo Athletic Club, Buffalo Blizzard and the UB Alumni Association.