Aggie Pack

Students of the University of California at Davis who attend sporting events can join the Aggie Pack, the largest student-run university spirit organization in the United States. The Aggie Pack was started in 1992 as an attempt to increase attendance at games and events, and was successful. Membership is free and automatic for students, offers chances to win merchandise and food, and provides a very raucous encouragement to the athletes. Students band together as one large group, invent cheers, and support the UC Davis Aggies with their enthusiasm. In past recent years, the more energetic members of the Pack, known as Aggie Pack Extremists, tended to dress up in elaborate yale blue and gold costumes and dairy cow makeup. One Aggie Pack cheer is "Go Ags!". The Aggie Pack, as well as the crowd, sing the Aggie Fight song during sporting events.

Aggie Fight Song

Lift up your voices, now's the time to sing.

This is the day the Victory Bell will ring.

Loyal Aggies, all for one.

Never stopping 'til we've won,

Because the Mustang will show our team the way to fight,

Charging the enemy with all his might.

Let's go. Let's win. Today's the day

The Aggies will fight! Fight! Fight!

^[1]

History

Source:^[2]

The beginnings of the Aggie Pack date to the early 1990s. The organization is the brainchild of Larry Swanson, associate director of athletics. In 1992, he asked one of his student interns, Scott Brayton, to start a spirit group that would increase attendance and spirit at athletic events. The first official Aggie Pack event was a basketball game in January 1993, and Brayton recalls 15 students signing up to join the group.

Not coincidentally, Brayton also happened to serve as the student-athlete public face behind the campaigns to pass the Student Services Maintenance Fee (SSMF) in 1993 and Student Activities and Services Initiative Fee (SASI) in 1995. Members of the Aggie Pack just happened to be the front-line volunteers in the campaign to pass the SSMF and the SASI. In other words, a university-support group served as a political action committee and campaign organization to pass student fee increases favored by the UC Davis administration.

Also not coincidentally, Scott Brayton, who was an Athletics Department "intern" at the time, was rewarded for the passage of the SSMF and SASI by Bob Franks (Associate Vice Chancellor—Student Affairs) and Larry Swanson (Associate Athletics Director) with a full-time career position in the UC Davis Athletics Department and is currently "Associate Athletics Director / Auction, Marketing and Promotions."

Membership increased as the Aggie Pack leadership recognized the usefulness of incentives. Since the early days in 1993, students who joined the group were given a free Aggie Pack t-shirt. In 1994, coordinator Phil Champlin introduced the concept of "madness." These in-game giveaways were meant to reward the fans who were cheering the most. It began with the Aggie Pack's trademark candy madness, and has now expanded to include burrito, tube sock, Pita Pit and pizza madness.

The organization continued to expand under the leadership of Kenny Kane. Kane was the master of ceremonies at Aggie Pack events from 1994 to 1996, and most students across campus knew him as the "Chickenman." Under his direction, the Pack expanded to all intercollegiate sports offered by the campus. It was also during this time that the Aggie Pack Extremists (APES) made their debut. The APES were dedicated students who did a lot of the behind the scenes work, although most students knew them as the colorful characters who led the crowd during the games. Some famous Aggie Pack characters include Superpope, The Men in Kilts, the Cow Brothers, the Burrito Bomber, the Aggie Elves, the GI Aggies, Harley Davis, and many more.

Many wondered where the organization would turn to after Kane's departure in 1996, but the Pack fell into the more than capable hands of Brian Rocca. He assumed Kane's job as master of ceremonies and thrilled the Aggie Pack as Indiana Aggie. During Rocca's tenure as leader, the Aggie Pack became known for its performance skits. These included the Village People, Vanilla Ice, the Jackson 5, Thriller, Riverdance and many more. Rocca, with the help of Adam Benedict, also created Aggie Jam, UC Davis' own basketball midnight madness. And it was also under his leadership that the annual Break the Record Night became one of the marquee events in the entire Davis community.

The Aggie Pack hit some rough waters after Rocca's graduation in 1999, but it has survived. Today the Aggie Pack is stronger than ever. With blue shirts and amazing upsets over Stanford the Aggie Pack has cemented itself as a major part of the UC Davis experience. As UC Davis is now Division I status, Aggie Pack aspires to make UC Davis as renowned in sports as Cal or UCLA.

References

^ "Aggie Fight Song - Davis - LocalWiki". Daviswiki.org. Retrieved 2022-12-21.
^ "Aggie Pack - Davis - LocalWiki". localwiki.org. Retrieved 2022-06-20.

External links

[1] "Aggie Fight Song - Davis - LocalWiki". Daviswiki.org. Retrieved 2022-12-21.

[2] "Aggie Pack - Davis - LocalWiki". localwiki.org. Retrieved 2022-06-20.

[1]

[2]

v t e UC Davis Aggies men's basketball
Venues	The Pavilion (1977–present)
Culture & lore	Aggie Pack Gunrock
People	Head coaches Statistical leaders
Seasons	List of seasons 1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25
NCAA national championship in bold

v t e UC Davis Aggies football
Venues	Sacramento Stadium (1928–1931) A Street Field (1932–1948) Toomey Field (1949–2006) UC Davis Health Stadium (2007–present)
Bowls & rivalries	Bowl games Cal Poly: Battle for the Golden Horseshoe Sacramento State: Causeway Classic
Culture & lore	Gunrock the Mustang UC Davis Marching Band Aggie Fight KHTK
People	Head coaches NFL draftees
Seasons	1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943–1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024