UNO Students to Embark on 100th Spirit Trip

The year is 2015.

Omaha Hockey (No. 9) has advanced to NCAA regionals and is heading to South Bend, Indiana, to take on Harvard and Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) for a chance to make its first-ever Frozen Four appearance.

It was a memorable period for UNO grad Brent Bean (Class of ‘18) for a few reasons.

“I got really sick. Like, I had really bad chills,” he says with a laugh.

Bean, a freshman at the time, was battling those chills on a Greyhound bus filled with UNO students heading to South Bend to watch the games live. The students may not have realized it at the time, but that bus ride was the first of many over the next decade.

It was the inaugural Spirit Trip through the UNO Office of Spirit, Tradition, and Signature Events (Spirit and Tradition).

Luckily, Bean was able to quickly bounce back from his illness and attend both games that weekend. He specifically recalls the second game against RIT, when UNO’s student section was placed on the upper level of Notre Dame’s arena.

"The RIT section, they were on the bottom, and we got mad because we were like, ‘Why did they get to sit down there? We have to sit all the way up here!’” Halfway through the game, Brent and the other UNO students made the group decision to move to the lower level into empty seats.

“So the two student sections were sitting right next to each other,” he says.

"It was a lot of back and forth between us, and then I remember after we had won, we went up onto the concourse and actually had a handshake line with the RIT student section, just as a show of sportsmanship. It was really cool,” he says.

The win against RIT meant that Omaha Hockey was headed to Boston for the Frozen Four just two weeks later.

Spirit and Tradition was ready. For just $250, UNO students could get a ride, lodging, and secure their ticket for the Frozen Four matchup with Providence.

“Basically, I didn't even have to talk my parents into it,” Bean says. “My dad was just like, ‘We're going to give you the money to go because this is something you can't miss.’”

The buses filled up quick. So quick that then-freshman Alexis Sharkey-Bean (Class of ‘18) didn’t make the cut. Until the last minute.

“Some spots opened up, so [Bill Pickett] reached out, and I ended up paying my way and joining in. And Boston was amazing.”

“I remember we had to get up super early, like 3 o’clock in the morning,” she added with a laugh.

Throughout their time at UNO, Alexis and Brent, now married, estimate that they each attended around 10 Spirit Trips; traveling for hockey, volleyball, and basketball.

“Honestly, I think it is probably one of the coolest experiences that students have the opportunity to take advantage of,” Sharkey-Bean says.

As Spirit and Tradition now prepares for its 100th trip, alumni like them look back on their experiences with no regrets and encourage current students to attend.

“It gets you out there and gets you to meet people you maybe wouldn't have had the chance to meet,” she says. “There were a lot of people we interacted with and became friendly with that otherwise we wouldn't have had any contact with. It just, it really makes my heart happy.”

100th Trip, 100 Students, $100

In full-circle fashion, the 100th Spirit Trip will again be for Omaha Hockey, this time as they take on conference opponent St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Spirit and Tradition set a goal of getting 100 students on the trip, which it achieved in early November. Each student will pay just $100, which covers travel, lodging, game tickets, food, a T-shirt, and a ticket to either the Great Wolf Lodge or the Mall of America amusement park.

“When are you ever gonna get to go to Minnesota for three days for $100?” says Mac Tupa, an architectural engineering student and member of the Maverick Maniacs.

Tupa is all in on the trip.

“Getting 100 students would be unreal. Usually we have anywhere from 25 to 50,” he said (before they officially secured 100 students).

As just a sophomore, Tupa has already been on a handful of Spirit Trips and can’t wait to add this milestone trip to his list.

“I'm really excited to see the St. Thomas Hockey Arena. They just built it, last year was their first season in it, and so that's what I'm excited about because I'm kind of a hockey nerd,” he says.

Tupa was drawn into the Maverick Maniacs and Spirit Trips as a freshman; during high school, he loved being a member of the student section and supporting his teams. This was an opportunity to continue that.

Last year, one of the Spirit Trips brought students to New York to watch hockey.

“I think they're so fun,” he says. “Going to New York, it was kind of a one-time thing. Like, no other time am I ever gonna get to go to New York for $300. So it's like, yeah, I'm obviously going.”

The low-cost student trips have been made possible by generous donors and alumni through Wear Black Give Back, which is how the 100th trip price tag is just $100.

“The more opportunities we create through programs like spirit trips, the more we distinguish UNO from other institutions,” says Spirit and Tradition Director Bill Pickett, who helped spearhead the trips starting in 2015.

“These experiences become part of what makes the university special and give us meaningful stories to share about the impact we have on the student experience,” Pickett adds.

One of the drivers of donations during Wear Black Give Back for Spirit and Tradition, and the spirit trips, has consistently been MavPuck. MavPuck began as an Omaha Hockey fan site and message board created by UNO grads Bridget Weide Brooks and her husband, Jon, in the year 2000.

Now, MavPuck has grown into a social media presence, website, blog, and podcast. Over the years, the group has organized its own bus trips for fans to away hockey games.

In 2015, Jon and Bridget organized a GoFundMe campaign to give students on the original spirit trip a little extra spending cash.

“Twenty dollars wasn't a lot of money, but it was enough for a meal or a souvenir. More importantly, it was a reminder that the larger Omaha Hockey community was behind them,” Weide Brooks says.

Since that first spirit trip, MavPuck has helped raise nearly $3,000 for Spirit and Tradition through Wear Black Give Back campaigns. Weide Brooks says experiences like these are what help build the next generation of Omaha Hockey fans.

“The students aren't just attending a hockey game. They're traveling together, making friends, supporting their classmates, and creating memories that will stay with them long after graduation,” she says.

“And it means something to the players, too. When you're playing hundreds of miles from home, and you look into the stands and see a group of UNO students cheering for you, that's pretty special.”

Spirit and Tradition is excited to welcome the large cohort of students on the upcoming trip, but especially those who will be on their very first one.

“My first spirit trip, I was a little intimidated to go on it because I was a freshman, and you've got everybody else who's done spirit trips and stuff like that,” Tupa recalls. “But in reality, everybody's there to have fun.”

“If you're not sure if you're gonna have a good time, [Spirit and Tradition] are gonna make sure that you are seen and that you have a good time,” Bean says. “And once you do one, you're probably going to want to do another.”