SuperFrog celebrates 21st birthday
Annual event includes Casino Night, giveaways

By Jonathan Sampson
Staff Reporter

Programming Council is celebrating SuperFrog’s 8th annual 21st birthday party at 8 p.m. today in the Student Center Ballroom, but as of Wednesday, many students were still unaware of the event.

SuperFrog has been the official university mascot for more than 20 years, but T.J. Ammons, PC Special Events Committee chairman, said it’s always been tradition to celebrate his age as 21.

Josh Paschal, a junior computer science major, said he has never been to SuperFrog’s birthday celebration.

“I knew it was sometime around this time of year, but I didn’t know when,” he said.

He said one reason he hasn’t gone in the past is he does not hear about many PC events.

Laurie Oberhausen, a sophomore elementary education major, said she hasn’t been able to attend many PC events this year.

“I feel like if they would publicize a little more, I might go,” she said.

Ammons said he’s tried many different types of publicity this year to attract students to attend the events. SuperFrog was in The Main Tuesday passing out invitations to the event. Casino Night money will be distributed at tonight’s basketball game, he said.

“It will be a very good marketing tool,” he said. “We’ll already have a crowd, and they can just come straight to the Student Center.”

He said they plan to have birthday cakes, pizza, popcorn, a raffle, a live band and giveaways at the event as well as the traditional Casino Night and fortune teller.

He said he hopes the publicity will bring students to the event even though there are changes from last year in its time, length and location.

Ammons said the event was originally planned to begin at 6:30 p.m., but it was moved to 8 p.m. because of the basketball game. He said the event will still conflict with the end of the game, but added he is not concerned.

“The mark of a good campus is that they have different events at the same time so students can actually have a choice,” he said.

Ammons said the event was moved from the Student Center Lounge to the ballroom because the committee decided they needed more room. Sodexho-Marriott management was also concerned about the noise level if the event was held in the lounge, he said. The party has lasted for two days in the past, but this year it will only run for one night, he said.

“The purpose of it being one day instead of two is that two days just drags out the event and changes the cost,” he said. “A lot of people at the event charge by the hour.”

He said even with the changes, he expects the cost to be around the same as last year, $6,250.

Jonathan Sampson
j.m.sampson@student.tcu.edu