President's Blog: From the Heart

The Race to be Blue
By Eric F. Spina
This is one of those feel-good, behind-the-scenes stories that deserves to be part of University of Dayton lore.
It’s a tale of how two students, who had never crossed paths before, became fierce competitors for the chance to be painted blue, don red wigs, and cheer wildly together in the front row of the Red Scare student section at a Dayton Flyers basketball game.
It’s a story worth hearing and cheering.
Anna Capaci, a senior accounting major from Mountain Top, Pennsylvania, held the crowd spellbound at our annual scholarship celebration brunch as she talked about competing in a social media contest to become one of the “Blue Men” at the Flyers exhibition game against Xavier last fall. The rules were simple: repost a graphic of Rudy Flyer, follow the Red Scare on Instagram, comment “Rudy,” and encourage as many of your friends as possible to like the post.
“For three days I was going back and forth with a first-year student in the race to be blue. We had so many people invested in this competition to the point where I had people telling me they got their entire family to like my comment,” she said. “And yet this first-year student with only 400 followers was keeping up with me. 300 likes. 400 likes. 500 likes and climbing. It was neck and neck.
“When the competition closed, he beat me by earning more than 600 likes, and my dreams to be in the front row of a Dayton Flyers basketball game had fizzled out.”
Disappointed, she stared at the tally — 619-579: “I was so distraught,” she recalled. A short time later, a text popped up on her phone from an unknown number. It was her competitor, Will Martin, offering to take her to the game as one of his two guests.
“We each had no idea who the other was and it was an experience I will never forget,” she told scholarship donors. “As if this story doesn’t already perfectly embody the community spirit that exists at the University of Dayton, he shared with me that the way he got so many votes was by going door to door in Marycrest, then Stuart, and asking people to like his comment. Literally, he went door to door greeting people and asking for their support! Sooo UD!”
Later, Will admitted that his competitive nature took over. “I went out of the box, going a little insane,” said the sport management major from Columbus with a laugh. “My sister said you have to chill out. I knew Anna, being a senior, really wanted this, too, so when my sister suggested I invite her, I did.”
On game day, Will, Anna and Will’s buddy Bennett Hogan painted themselves a vivid blue, tranforming into the “Blue Men.”
“You apply the blue paint like sunscreen and suddenly you’re a Smurf,” said Anna, who later extended her blue arm to take a selfie with Rudy Flyer on the court. During the game, the three jumped up and down and cheered relentlessly from the coveted front row behind the hoop.
“It was,” Anna said later, “the best day of my life.”
For me, this story beautifully captures the essence of the UD experience, where we support each other, celebrate each other — and build community. I hear that spirit every time the Red Scare students lead fans in a chant that reverberates throughout the Arena: “We are UD!”