University of Rhode Island students will set, spike and slide their way to victory this weekend during the Student Alumni Association’s annual mud volleyball tournament on Sunday, April 23.

Before we dive into this year’s Oozeball tournament, here are nine things you may not know about URI’s muddiest tradition:

1. The University of Rhode Island Student Alumni Association held its first Oozeball tournament in April 1990. This URI tradition was started by SAA to raise money for an endowment fund in the URI Foundation.

2. The first Oozeball chair was Ken Knox ‘90. “It was a fun day… Everybody had a blast.”

3. This year’s director of Oozeball is Mike Lawson ‘18. Mike Lawson, a URI junior and kinesiology major, plans, runs, and oversees the production of the Oozeball tournament.

4. At the first Oozeball tournament in 1990, there were about 500 participants.

5. This year, the URI Student Alumni Association will be celebrating its 28th Oozeball. The 2017 Oozeball theme is “Muddi Gras” (Mardi Gras), and will be held on Sunday, April 23 starting at 9 a.m.

6. This year, there will be 256 teams participating at Oozeball. Each team consists of 6 players.

7. Among these teams, there will be more than 1,500 participants. Yes, all 1,500 people will participate. But spectators are allowed to come down for free to watch and be a part of the fun!

8. Guess what? If you’re a URI alum, you can play too!

9. Each year, the Oozeball field by the Plains Road Lot is plowed by local farmers and drenched by the Kingston Fire Department. That’s a lotta mud.

Cory Woodbine, an intern in the Marketing and Communications Department at URI and marketing major, wrote this piece.