The Tradition ... where is it?

Who would’ve thought a combination of scrap metal and a basketball hoop could become one of the Messiah’s most treasured, and most mysterious, traditions?

Picture this: a 700-pound object comprising selected remains of the Alumni Auditorium called “The Tradition.” Cute, right? Cute enough to be hidden somewhere on campus until Homecoming, where it was proudly displayed on the back of a homecoming float.

Senior students were in charge of finding a hiding spot for the sculpture. Underclassmen were in charge of finding it. There was only one ground rule: 36 inches of the sculpture had to be visible at all times—or so we thought.

No one has found The Tradition since the ’90s. The 20-year-long tradition came to an abrupt halt when underclassman couldn’t locate the objet d’art by homecoming. Nor could the seniors remember where they last left it.

Speculation arose concerning its disappearance during the construction of Boyer Hall. Devin Manzullo-Thomas, director of Messiah’s archives said, “The Tradition might have been destroyed when some buildings were torn down, but I don’t know which buildings those would have been, because we can’t say for sure if The Tradition was in there.”

All efforts to find any credible evidence of The Tradition have failed. With a story that resembles that of the Loch Ness monster, The Tradition could very well still be hiding somewhere on the Grantham campus. The world may never know.

—Molly McKim ’23 and Jake Miaczynski ’20