Ice Carnival: 1970s-1996

While the Ice Carnival of the 30s-60s was a mixture of organizations coming to Potsdam to entertain students and students participating in event, the "modern" ice carnival was a competition.  Winners were selected for each event, and overall winners (men's, women's, co-ed) were declared.

A 1973 Ice Carnival Trophy

Each year a committee, compromised of students from both campuses, selected an overall theme and managed all of the events.  I'm finding a lot of information on the 1973 Ice Carnival, so you'll see mostly that year in this post.  That year the SUNY Potsdam Racquette reported a $5,100 budget for Ice Carnival, which was part of the Student Government Association (SGA).  It's safe to assume there was a similar budget at Clarkson, giving these students a good chunk of money to work with for this annual event.

1973 Ice Carnival Committee

1973 Overall Theme

There were three categories of participating organizations: Men, Women and Co-ed.  In addition to fraternities and sororities, dorms and other campus organizations (even ROTC) participated.  Some years organizations teamed up to compete in the Co-Ed category.  Each organization selected a theme that went along with the overall theme. Here are the organization themes for 1973:

For events like ice sculpture, cavalcade, parade, oil cloth and window painting, the participating organization had to use their chosen theme.

1973

Events included Cavalcade (in 1991 Cavalcade was two nights)

Parade,

A warm-up dance, ice skating,

Ice Carnival Ball with crowning of the King and Queen,

plus judging of Oil Cloths hung on both campuses and Window Paintings done at businesses.

Some years there was also a pie eating and beer chugging contest (the drinking age was 18 until 1982).

1980

1986

Houses would also campaign for their King/Queen candidate via short functions with each other as well as visiting dining halls of both campuses during dinner.  Each House sang a campaign song promoting their candidate.  For Omega in 1991 (my last Ice Carnival) this involved four nights of campaigning - with visiting as many as five fraternities in one night!   And according to the calendar in the Omega photo album from that semester we had bid night the night after finishing Ice Carnival, which is insane.  But hey, we were young!

Overall it was a fun event that gave students something to do during the long Potsdam winter, and united the two schools.

The last photos of Ice Carnival in the school yearbooks is 1993.  A 1994 Clarkson Integrator article about Ice Carnival says it was organized by a State student, there is no mention on a co-chair from Clarkson.  In 1995 both schools participated and there are photos in the school paper.

October 1996 Editorial in the Clarkson Integrator:

In the late 1990s and early 2000s it seems that Clarkson held a small Clarkson-only Ice Carnival, which they held again in 2013.  The Greek houses had declined in size in the early 90s, so it's likely that they struggled to have the membership and funds available for full participation.  I know from talking with Omega alumni that they cut back on the events they participated in to the point where they were only campaigning for their Queen candidate.  So it seems that Ice Carnival ended due to apathy and money - a lethal combination.