Braving howling winds and some of the coldest temperatures so far this fall, students waited overnight to pick up free tickets to see David Letterman’s Nov. 30 return to campus.
Huddling in tents and under mounds of quilts or with the help of electric blankets, and plenty of delivery pizza, students camped outside of Emens Auditorium as temperatures fell into the low 30s.
Despite the cold, Kaitlyn Young, a sophomore telecommunications major from Evansville, said camping out for Letterman tickets has become a tradition at Ball State.
“This is one of those things you can only do while in college,” she said. “When I heard that David Letterman was coming back to campus, I simply decided that I had to go because the man gives so much back to our program. I came to Ball State just because of the telecommunications program and started working right away. That’s because of everything he has done for this university.”
Young was sharing the comfort of an electric blanket with her friend, sophomore Jessica Mauch. The two made an unplanned trip to secure the blanket from Mauch’s parents, who live in Westfield north of Indianapolis.
“My mom was like, ‘Text me when you finally give up,’” Mauch said. But the elementary education major came prepared with not only the electric blanket but a pile of comforters that looked like a Princess in the Pea starter set. No way were they backing down from a little weather.
“I just think it’s so cool that someone as successful as David Letterman went to school here,” Mauch said. “We wanted to be sure we would get tickets to see him.”
That was the clear consensus among students, who said seeing Letterman talk with filmmakers Spike Jonze and Bennett Miller was simply a necessity.
Crossing goal off the college bucket list
“It’s just something you have to do if you’re a student at Ball State,” said Rebecca Jacobs, a junior speech pathology major. “You have to see David Letterman, and you have to camp out to get the tickets.”
That was certainly the thinking for Theresa Barhorst, a junior public relations major from Munster, Ohio. The ticket-line-outing event crosses off another goal on her college bucket list.
"It’s just something you have to do if you’re a student at Ball State. You have to see David Letterman, and you have to camp out to get the tickets."
— Rebecca Jacobs
speech pathology major
“I heard about the previous visits and how crazy the lines were, but I was going to be here no matter what,” she said. “We came out about 10 p.m. and it was very cold, but then the winds picked up and we were lucky to run into people who had a tent.”
The owner of the tent was Ashley Kedra, an Indianapolis sophomore, who acquired it for a field trip to Florida as a landscape architecture major.
“I originally wasn’t going to do this, but my friends texted me about camping out and I happened to have a tent,” she said. “We got here about 10 last night and invited a few people in and made some great new friends. We spent the night sleeping on and off, listening to music, checking Tinder and getting to know each other.”
It’s cold, but not Chicago cold
Former Chicago residents Paige Kennedy and Jenny Alvaro, both juniors, admitted growing up on the shores of Lake Michigan acclimated them to the cold. In Muncie, they spent 32 hours over two nights waiting for tickets.
“This was a really last minute thing,” Kennedy said. “We have a wallyball team and decided we should just get out blankets and head over there. We were surprised at being first in line, but it has been a lot of fun even though we were really, really cold.”
The pair endured the first night but then acquired a tent from Ball State’s Outdoor Pursuits for the final overnight adventure.
“We ended up with more friends piling into the tent, but it is so worth it because we get to see David Letterman,” Alvaro said. “The worst part was waking up to find that my toes were numb and I had no room in the tent to move, but then someone yelled they were giving out hot chocolate and we climbed out.”
As dawn was breaking, Emens event manager Dina Byrnes roused students from their slumber a few moments before the early morning refreshments arrived. First Lady Grace Ferguson, the wife of President Paul W. Ferguson, handed out the goodies, chatting with the students as the ticket window readied for business.
By Lisa Renze-Rhodes and Marc Ransford.