By Chris Parker, junior

 Traditions are important at Friends University. Cherry Carnival, the Week of Welcome, walkouts and many other events are something that I have looked forward to each of my first three years at Friends, but one of my favorite traditions is no longer around: War on 54.

The War on 54 was one of the first things I heard about when I was considering Friends out of high school. It was a competition of intramural activities centered around the Newman vs. Friends basketball games. School pride and the War on 54 were synonyms when the event was around, and the entire campus seemed excited for the event even months before it took place.

My freshman year I had the chance to participate in it by playing Dodgeball and slow pitch softball. Outside of running for the cross country and track teams, it was the most fun I have had with a campus activity in my three years at Friends.

It was fun not only to participate, but also to watch the events like ping pong. I even remember watching Darrin Rasmussen, a tennis player, playing for the War on 54 title against a Newman player, and it was the most intense game of ping pong I have ever watched. Yes, I just described ping pong as “intense.”

There was something for everyone in the War on 54 from softball to tug-of-war to blanket making. The dodgeball games had the atmosphere of a championship basketball or football game. School pride was everywhere for the War on 54, and the students at Friends really came together for a cause we all can agree on, beating Newman.

I was fortunate enough to get a chance to participate in the War on 54, but now there have been two freshman classes that have no idea what the War on 54 even is. This is an injustice for the new classes of students and the current students who got to enjoy the event.

The reason the War on 54 was discontinued after only three years was because of Newman’s move to Division II according to Gary Rapp. Newman and Friends do not play in basketball and that is the big reason the War on 54 is not longer waged.

Friends and Newman need to bring back War on 54 and all of its great competition and the school pride that comes with it. You cannot tell me that there is not a rivalry with Newman to this day.

If the basketball game was what made the War on 54 work, why not move the War on 54 to the Fall and center it around the annual men’s soccer game. I would argue that those games in soccer are just as intense, if not more so, than the basketball games ever were.

The students need to call for the War on 54 to make a triumphant return before any of the current classes can get out of here without experiencing the event.