The Return of Iron Knights!

Founders' Day 2011 brought a lot of fun and games, but I was the most excited for one event in particular: Iron Knights!

As I've mentioned before, I'm part of the Hotel-Restaurant-Resort Management group. Professor Lansing likes for us to organize (or at least participate in) different HRRM events throughout the year.

This year, his sophomore and junior classes were together in the fall. That is when we began planning Iron Knights! I'd never realized how fun yet difficult it is to plan events! We literally started from scratch because Iron Knights had not been done in three-four years. We had different ideas for the event, including the following:

Having it off-campus, in Cedar Hill

Fundraiser, which would include selling the dinner tickets

Including the provost and local mayors in the competition

But as most of you know, things don't always go as planned!

When we came back to school from Winter break, we continued to plan. Unfortunately, the sophomore and junior classes were split up for our spring HRRM classes. A few weeks into the semester, Professor Lansing told us that Iron Knights would actually going to be a part of Founders' Day.

Quickly, we had to change plans. Our venue had changed, as well as our target audience/market. The sophomore class was now in charge of the competition-side of Iron Knights, while my class (the juniors) would become in charge of the food-aspect.

After much talk and different arguments, we settled on the menu:

Caesar salad

Potato soup in bread boules

Ice cream

And the sophomore class was finally able to announce the competitors and MCs:

White Knights: Professors Tiffany Owensby and Martha Heimberg

Black Knights: Professors Adam Guerrero and Chris Giles

MCs: Professors Tidwell and D'Alessandro (our Iron Knights champs from previous years)

Both classes had put so much effort into getting everything ready both before and on that day. We were worked hard to make sure the competition was set up for our Knights teams, made salads and drinks, and set-up the line to serve. We did it all, including clean-up!

There was so much going on! We were actually a few minutes late to serve. Most of the junior class had been prepping the food, so we had no idea that the event was actually packed! Janice, Carlos, and I ended up staying at the serving line nearly the entire night because we had students and faculty coming for food the entire time! I've heard we actually served roughly 150 plates, which is a fantastic number!

Although I didn't get to see the competition, I could hear the laughter coming from the event. There was a rap by the White Knights: Professors Owensby and Heimberg. And is it true that Professor Guerrero showed off his new baby for votes?! Oh, and let's not forget that there was almost a food fight!

In the end, I can honestly say that organizing, prepping, participating in, and cleaning up this event was stressful, yet so exciting! Like I said already, we put a lot of work in it; but it was all worth it. We've heard great things about our event, and we hope to make it even better for next year!

I didn't want to bombard you guys with pictures, so I'll just add a few at the end of this blog. But if you'd like, check out the NU Texas' Founders' Day photo album on facebook for more pictures!

I can't wait to see what next year's Iron Knights has in store for us... especially since I've heard a rumor that the senior class will be taking over this event in terms of organizing it all! :)

-Erica