JOPLIN, Mo. —
The football that is kicked off in the Sonic Miners Bowl next month will already have a story even before it gets to the game on Nov. 10.
Members of the Kappa Alpha Order of Missouri Southern State University will run the ball from Pittsburg, Kan., to MSSU, where the game will be played this year. The event, which the group is calling the Pigskin Run, is a benefit for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
“Kappa Alpha Order is running about 32 miles, from Pittsburg State University’s stadium to Missouri Southern State University’s stadium,” said Glenn Underwood, a senior at MSSU and chairman of the group’s philanthropic effort. “We hope that what we do will make a difference and help out our community.”
The run is estimated to take six to seven hours. It will start at 6 a.m., and the football will be passed along relay style until it arrives at Fred Hughes Stadium, where it will be used in the annual game between the rival football teams. The game starts at 2 p.m.
Thirty students, all with the Kappa Alpha Order, are participating.
“Since it’s a relay style run, no one has to run the entire 32 miles,” Underwood said. “It’s going to be a long, long run.”
The Pigskin Run had four official sponsors by Wednesday afternoon: MSSU sororities Alpha Sigma Alpha and Zeta Tau Alpha, and local businesses Franz & Associates and Kelly Insurance. More businesses are invited to help sponsor the event. The Kappa Alpha Order had raised $1,500 in donations as of Thursday, Underwood said.
Underwood said the Kappa Alpha Order has been at Missouri Southern for 40 years, and while the Pigskin Run has been done in the past, it has not been an annual event. The last one was in 2010. Underwood said it made sense to start the tradition again this year, in honor of Missouri Southern’s 75th anniversary.
“I think we will definitely continue to do the Pigskin Run in the future,” he said.
T-shirts
The Kappa Alpha Order is selling T-shirts for $10 to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association. The shirts will be available the day of the Nov. 10 Sonic Miners Bowl at the MSSU bookstore in Billingsly Student Center.
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