Logo owned by the Aggie Pack Organization.
The Aggie Pack is the largest student-run spirit organization in the United States. Students can swipe in at Aggie Pack Events and become members of the Aggie Pack. Aggie Pack interns attend pretty much every major home sporting event. But, unlike the Band-uh, they don't attend every major AWAY sporting event. Though recently, the Aggie Pack has planned roadtrips to certain games. They use the Aggie Logo to represent themselves and have their own UC Davis Aggie Pack website.

During sporting events, students take part in cheering on UC Davis sports teams with energy and passion in the Aggie Pack section. Be sure to arrive early for football games as the Aggie Pack section often fills up. During breaks in the action muscular men in SWAT t-shirts fire pieces of candy at high velocity from large bazookas into the stands. This form of getting the crowd excited is known as "Candy Madness". Variations on the "Madness" theme include: Redrum Burger Madness, Pita Pit Madness, Tube Sock Madness, Bead Madness, and everyone's favorite, Large Boulder Madness, in which a medieval catapult is used to launch a boulder at the crowd, smushing half the bleachers in a dazzling display of crazed collegiate mayhem. The Aggie Pack is responsible for giving out Aggie Bucks when students enter sport games, and also maintain the Aggie Pride Outlet, which sells Aggie merchandise and apparel.

Aggie Pack (2019)In 2005 the Aggie Pack gave away nifty blue shirts in the tradition of wearing "Aggie Blue." The Aggie Pack crowds are getting larger and louder as UC Davis has moved to Division I.

In March 2004, the ASUCD Senate spent $5,000 and purchased a 1973 Firecoach Crown Pumper for use by Aggie Pack and the Athletics Department as reported by the Cal Aggie.

The Aggie Pack is not an ASUCD unit and exists as a part of the UCD Athletics department. ASUCD does contribute funds to Aggie Pack ($14,000 in 2005), however.

 

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This UCD program receives ASUCD subsidies.

History

The beginnings of the Aggie Pack date to the early 1990's. 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."[WWW]http://www.ucdavisaggies.com/staffdir/ucda-staff.html

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 1994-96, 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.

Aggie Pack (2021)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.

Aggie Pack Guys

Aggie Pack Guys are those who served as an Aggie Pack emcee. They are often the most recognizable students on campus. Past Aggie Pack Guys include:

Aggie Pack emcee Josh Siegel (2018-Present).

Comments:

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2006-03-28 16:37:03   It seems that the content that was here before has deleted... Interesting that Kenny Kane is mentioned here. I met Kenny briefly a few years ago, and his general opinion of the Aggie Pack was that Larry Swanson had destroyed it when he gutted it in 1996, replacing creative students with candy slinging minions and sports marketers that would do his evil deeds. —JoeLares

2006-04-08 21:25:35   Interesting Comments Joe. Content was added and very little to none was deleted. There was been much drama over the fate of the Aggie Pack. As one of the new candy slinging "minions" I'm working to capture some of that old Aggie Pack spirit once again, but with a modern D1 twist. —ChrisPerry

2008-07-19 16:07:14   having grown up in davis, and graduated from ucd, its my opinion that aggie pack was way better before 2000, or at least more memorable. Indiana Aggie was alright, but the Heckler was the best. At basketball games, he would hound the opposing teams point guard throughout the game, and the stuff he came up with was nothing short of genious. Indiana Aggie and the Heckler were replaced by some "aggie love" character that was more obnoxious and self absorbed than anything. after that abomination, i stopped paying attention. —JeffIto

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