Students share tradition, legends

Aubrey Toole and her roommates pass around a bowl of popcorn as they watch “The Princess Diaries 2” — a tradition that they share once a month.

“My roommates and I pick out a movie, but it’s a different movie every time, and we each take turns picking one out,” said Toole, a biomedical sciences major from Pace, Florida, who was a senior in the spring.

“It’s a lot of fun because, well, with the stress of school and other things, it’s nice to spend one night having fun watching a movie with friends at home rather than out in the theater.

“It also gives me a day to look forward to every month — that’s why having traditions can be so much fun in college.”

Roommate night is Toole’s own personal tradition, but Troy University offers traditions of its own, as well as some myths and even superstitions.

On game day, 15 minutes before kickoff, Trojan fans and the Sound of the South Marching Band gather at the front of Sartain Hall to cheer on the football coach and the players as they walk down University Avenue

into Veterans Memorial Stadium. This march into the home field is called the Trojan Walk.

A growing tradition is Dollar Movie Night, held on the first and third Wednesdays of each month by Continental Cinema 5 and the University Activities Council. Admission to every movie is $1.

Students can use the University shuttle service to get to and from the movies during Dollar Movie Night.

“It’s a lot of fun,” said Anna Kathryn Carter, an education major from Decatur who was a junior in the spring. “My friends and I go every time.”

Troy has also been reported to have a supernatural area on campus

Located on the main quad, McCartha Hall is known for giving students the creeps.

Jill Odom and Karli Maudlin, former section editors of the Tropolitan, wrote in an article titled “Five creepiest places in Troy” that walking into the building “is like a trip to the Twilight Zone.”

Troy has its own myths, too, such as the Kissing Rock.

Kelcie Hathcock, who graduated in 2012, said this myth always perplexed her when she was a student.

“I was told during a tour my senior year of high school that there is a Kissing Rock,” Hathcock said. “From what I can remember, legend has it that if a man and woman kiss on the rock, their love will last forever.”

Another rock legendary for its magic touch was said to bring students good luck.

“On the rock was a placard on the fountain that used to be in that quad behind Bibb Graves,” Cody Muzio, who graduated in 2012, said when asked what he remembered about the rock.

“It might have been a placard of Bibb Graves (a former Alabama governor) himself. If you rubbed the nose that protruded out, supposedly it gave you luck on your exam.”

The placard no longer exists, and a new fountain stands in its place, between the library and the Trojan Center.

However, is the magic gone? According to Toole, legends, traditions and even ghost stories never really die.

“They (legends) just find new places, or new ‘rocks,’ and then the magic begins the once more to students. You just have to look for them or even create your own legends.”