Fighting and philanthropy normally don’t go hand-in-hand but Sigma Phi Epsilon’s third annual Fight Night will change that.
The boxing event this Sunday will raise money for Sigma Phi Epsilon brother and Cal Poly student John Murphy who was severely injured last July after falling out the window of his fourth-story hotel room. Murphy sustained massive head trauma among other injuries and underwent six surgeries.
“John’s undergoing an extensive recovery process,” said Sigma Phi Epsilon president Casey Shadel. “We thought this was a good way to raise money and help with the medical expenses.”
For the past two years, the events raised money for Sigma Phi Epsilon’s national philanthropy, youth AIDS.
To garner sign ups, members of Sigma Phi Epsilon visited other fraternities and asked for brothers to sign up. Participants have been training for two months with SLO Kickboxing in order to learn how to box, since a substantial number of the fighters have no previous experience.
There will be approximately eight to 10 fights, though the numbers are subject to change. According to materials engineering sophomore and Sigma Phi Epsilon brother Alex Doyle, only about 30 percent of those who originally sign up end up participating due to the extensive training regime and time commitment.
Each fight will consist of three one and a half minute rounds. Though there will be no prizes; winners get “the gratitude of winning a one-on-one fight,” said Doyle.
Fight Night will take place at The Graduate in San Luis Obispo, which will be importing a boxing ring for the day. SLO Kickboxing employees will referee the event. All participants will be outfitted in headgear and clothes to minimize injuries.
Though some may think this event pits fraternities against each other, Casey says that’s not the case.
“It’s a really fun event,” he said. “It’s a sport, not really fighting, and actually brings all the greeks together to support one another together; everyone is really supportive of all the fighters.”
Doyle agreed. “It’s fun,” he said. “Every fighter gets their own walk-up song played by a DJ and there’s a raffle where you can win a 34 inch flat screen television, food, drinks.”
“It’s a great event to support John and his family,” Casey said. “He’s not only a member of the greek system, but a fellow Cal Poly student who has gone through a tragedy. Having 500 people stand behind him on a physical level, just seeing them all there would say so much.”
VIP tickets, which puts the observer eye-level of the ring, cost $25 and regular tickets are $10. The event will start at 2 p.m on Sunday.
The mustand daily should reread this article. There are two times where they wrote Sigma Alpha Epsilon. To put Sigma Phi Epsilon on the same level as SAE, especially when in the paper it ran under the article about the four SAE members arrested. This is a disgrace to Sig Ep. The article is about their philanthropy and now people may be confused. I realy wish the editors would put more time into their newspaper, especially when their are not that many article anyways.
This article did twice incorrectly refer to Sigma Alpha Epsilon instead of Sigma Phi Epsilon, and we apologize for any misunderstanding.
Sigma Phi Epsilon, the fraternity organizing this philanthropic fight night on Saturday, is not at all connected to the other front page story about Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity members being arrested in connection with freshman Carson Starkey’s alleged hazing-related death.
The two stories’ placement on the page together in Friday’s print edition was the result of the breaking news of four student arrests on Thursday; this article was always planned to run for Friday.
I appreciate that the Mustang Daily corrected this in the online version. However the print edition is everywhere. You just can’t take it back, and an itsy bitsy correction deep in the back of the paper next week doesn’t really make up for the insult. It makes me wonder if they proofread their articles at all. Fact checking anyone? I also believe the Sigma Phi Epsilon president’s last name is not Shadel but Shedd? Wow. How sad. It just goes to show that some people don’t care to know the Greek system at all. This is actually not the first time I’ve caught a blatant error, just the first time I responded.
So – some college frat kid falls out of a hotel window and this somehow gets more priority than kids with AIDS? Did the guy not have health insurance or something?
Mustang Daily really needs to get it together. Why even have the position of "Managing Editor" or "Editor in Chief" if NOTHING is being edited! This reminds me of all of simple grammatical errors and inaccuracies in the ASI campaign profiles for the candidates and the errors from Lantern Festival for the Multicultural Center. Do you know how many times I have seen corrections in the paper? How hard it is to read over your articles? This is a college level paper but I feel like my highschool newsletter did a better job. I’m pretty sure the English Department has some sort of tutoring service. MD should check into it. To the men of SigEp, you should demand that the paper runs a front-page correction. How can they confuse a fraternity raising money with an ANNUAL EVENT such as Fight Night with a fraternity known for hazing a pledge to death…wow.
Hi, thanks for sharing