A Love Letter to Even Year Pull: An Alum’s Perspective

Guest writer: Chloe Meengs (’24)

I competed in The Pull for the first time as a sophomore in 2021. I was a loud and proud morale for the 2-4 Pull Team. Since then, just over three years have passed, and my love for the tradition is somehow still growing exponentially. The lessons I learned through my involvement in The Pull – first alongside my team, then alongside my fellow coaches, then alongside generations of Pull alumni with and before me – have truly enriched my life. I owe some of the most exciting and satisfying moments of my college career to the friends I made during those long nights prepping for the big day. 

But as sappy and mushy as that all sounds, some of my favorite aspects of the Pull are anything but that. Exhausting practices, extensive strategy planning and more hours of work per week than a full-time job are what have ultimately granted Even Year four straight wins as of the 2024 Pull – a rare and exciting accomplishment. Winning the Pull requires near-superhuman strength and fortitude, both mentally and physically, but the reward is the ability to stand with the teams of previous years and have your name written next to theirs in history. 

These four most recent victories have been particularly noteworthy for a number of reasons. In 2021, for example, the 2-4 sophomores ended a four-year winning streak for Odd Year following the cancellation of the 2020 Pull due to COVID-19. In 2023, the 2-6 team won their second Pull in a row, meaning that the 2-6 coaches had won every single Pull they had been eligible to participate in (first on a team in 2021, then as coaches in 2022 and 2023). This is a feat that only two other classes in the last century have been able to achieve. Most recently, on September 28, 2024, Even Year’s current winning streak was lengthened from three years to four years (congratulations, 2-8)! From my brief time being involved in the tradition, as well as learning about The Pull’s history, I think what makes a winning team on either side of the river can be boiled down to a few key things: connection, care and community.

The importance of connection in The Pull feels sort of self-explanatory. Why put yourself through the agony of tearing your body apart on a rope for three hours if not for the friends in front of and behind you? On the heels of connection comes the opportunity to care. Through the bonds created during the season, small opportunities arise to show empathy for teammates: a coach pulling a team member aside to check how they’re doing; a morale working late into the night on a puller’s vest, even though it’s not their responsibility; a puller yelling chants and encouragements at their friend on the rope with them. These small acts of kindness snowball into a much larger community – not only community within the team, but community with Pull alumni that you gain access to for life once you’re a part of the Pull family. Winning this insane event takes a village. It can’t be done without the support of countless people donating their time and energy to the war effort. There are too many details to pay attention to; there is too much wisdom and knowledge to gain from previous pullers and morales to leave them out of the process. I truly believe that this is the main reason Even Year is experiencing not only a surge in success but also a rise in popularity: everything always comes back to the broader community. They recognize the value that everyone has to offer, and they capitalize on that. They even manage to have fun with it!

My experience as a morale on the 2-4 Pull Team was full of joy and character-building. I think the most important lessons I learned during that time were about humility and selflessness – how to give help knowing that there will be recognition or thanks in return. Moraling requires you to put your own needs aside completely to care for someone else’s in a way I haven’t experienced before or since. Honestly, it impacted the way I view my relationship with Jesus. It gave me a new context to view radical generosity and humbleness. Additionally, I made several of my best friends during those weeks. What we went through together, and our love for those shared memories, bonded us for life. After my time with 2-4, I was chosen to be a coach for the 2-6 team. Those subsequent two seasons were some of the most fun, exhausting and rewarding weeks of my life. I made even more great friends, found new ways to bring my faith into The Pull and worked with some very passionate people who taught me how to lead in love. This year, for the first time, I was able to experience the joy and excitement of Pull as an alum. I got to watch as my old 2-4 teammates, and I shook hands and shared stories with 2-8 freshmen whom we never would have had the chance to meet otherwise.

While I obviously can’t speak for Odd Year, I believe that they are just as motivated by learning discipline, cultivating confidence and forging lifelong friendships as Even Year is. Their pullers, morales, coaches and alumni bleed maroon and gold just as me and mine bleed red and black. They’ve been formidable opponents not only for my generation but for more than a century of pullers and morale that have come before us. As ever, it’s still anyone’s Pull. 

In my opinion, this is the beauty of the whole tradition – every win and every loss is so significant for the people who contribute directly to them, and they will carry their experiences with them forever. Yet somehow, in the grand scheme of things, the outcome of any Pull just becomes another number to add to over one hundred years of other wins and losses. How beautiful that behind every Pull, behind every newspaper heading bearing the score of that year’s event, there are countless friendships formed, lessons learned and identities found. The things that truly stick with me – that stick with all of us – are the shared experiences of training together, eating together and growing together for the three short weeks of the season and beyond. These things never change, no matter what year you compete, whether you win or lose or what side you pull for. I will never stop singing my praises for this tradition, and for Even Year Pull, which has given me all of this and more to be grateful for.

(Featured image source: Even Year Pull’s Instagram page)