There’s a new name — Blue Zoo Bash — but the exhilaration for the event formerly called Bash the Rec should remain just as high.

The MTSU Campus Recreation Center will once again be buzzing with excitement as hundreds of students are expected to gather on the eve of this weekend’s Blue Raiders Blackout football game against Marshall.

MTSU students play Cornhole, a bean bag tossing game, during the 2019 Bash the Rec event in the Campus Recreation Center parking lot. Hundreds of students will gather for the 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 1, Blue Zoo Bash — a pep rally featuring cheerleaders, MTSU pep band members and more fun and games. (MTSU file photo by Cat Curtis Murphy)

From 7 to 10 p.m. Friday, Oct. 1, students will gather for a pep rally-style bash full of activities, music and fun, as the large MTSU Band of Blue pep band performs and MT cheerleaders rev up the crowd of students in the campus rec parking lot. (See a short recap video above.)

The Blue Raiders, 1-2 overall, will entertain Conference USA opponent Marshall (2-2) at 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 2, in Floyd Stadium.

Organizers are trying to incorporate the aspect of the Blue Zoo student section at home games into a newly marketed name.

The event also helps kick off MTSU Family Weekend.

Charlie Gregory, Campus Recreation Center director and Rich Kershaw, director of Student Programming and Activities, are organizing the Blue Zoo Bash with assistance from their staffs. The event is co-sponsored by the rec center, Blue Zoo and SPARE (Student Programming).SPARE and the rec center are the original founders of Bash the Rec.

The Blue Zoo, a campus athletics boost group revived as a student organization in 2019, unfurls a large Blue Zoo-branded banner in the student section when the football team scored in Floyd. The banner didn’t appear in 2020 due to the pandemic.

Membership in the Blue Zoo is free — all students have to do is sit in the student section at Blue Raider games. Students wishing to be more involved and informed about the Zoo are encouraged to register as a member by going to https://mtsu.campuslabs.com/engage/organization/bluezoo.

— Randy Weiler (Randy.Weiler@mtsu.edu)

MTSU students will gather at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 1, in the Campus Recreation Center parking lot for the newly renamed Blue Zoo Bash — a pep rally featuring cheerleaders, MTSU pep band and dance team members on the eve of the MTSU-Marshall University football game. Dancers entertain the crowd during the 2019 Bash the Rec. (MTSU file photo by Cat Curtis Murphy)