Started by students in 1984 and played every spring since.

UConn Student Alumni Association, UConn Rec and UConn Alumni team up each year to host this annual Spring Weekend mud volleyball tournament on the fields behind North Campus. The tournament has won its share of plaudits, with Sports Illustrated proclaiming it the best mud volleyball game in the country in a 2004 issue devoted to college sports.

But what keeps the game alive is its connection to the UConn community as an activity that spans generations of students.

splat texture

Early OOzeball

1984 Yearbook Page

OOzeball in the 1984 Yearbook, the first year the tournament was held.

Oozeball tournament 1985

OOzeball tournament, 1985

1984 newspaper clipping

1984 clipping advertising the first OOzeball tournament here at UConn.

An OOzeball tournament on May 2, 1987.

Matt Kenny takes a slide during the 1996 Oozeball tournament, a part of Spring Weekend. (Jonathan Cohen/UConn File Photo)

Matt Kenny takes a slide during the 1996 OOzeball tournament, a part of Spring Weekend.

Students reveled during OOzeball in 1997, one of the officially sanctioned events of University Weekend.

“It’s a tradition, and traditions are what hold our campus together,” Bryan Kirby, past president of the Student Alumni Association, says in this interview with UConn 360. “Without traditions, UConn probably wouldn’t be as good a place as it is today.”

Themes

Every year, OOzeball is based around a theme that makes it unique from any other year. T-shirts are designed by students from UConn Recreation and the Student Alumni Association. Pictured are previous tournament themes.

Noticed we are missing your year and want to share a photo?
Email Jessica Sokol at jsokol@foundation.uconn.edu

1984 T Shirt, 'First Annual UConn OOzeball Tournament, April 26, 1984'

1984

2015 shirt 'Ooze Is The New Black'

2015

2016 tee

2016

Game of Ooze T shirt from 2017 featuring 'Mud Is Coming' slogan on back with a spoof of Game of Thrones iron throne with a volleyball sitting on the throne

2017

Stranger Ooze T Shirt from 2018 with back that reads "Gettin' Muddy Since 1984" with a picture of 13 from the show 'Stranger Things' holding out a muddy volleyball

2018

2019 OOzeball tee featuring the logo 'Mudvengers: OOzegame' on the front with a spoof of the infinite gauntlet holding an OOzeball on the back

2019

a mockup of a graphic t shirt with the wizard of ooze logo

2023

OOzeball Today

UConn's OOzeball 2022
Students, faculty, staff and alumni gathered to celebrate one of UConn's oldest (and muddiest) traditions.

OOzeball at North Campus on April 22, 2017.
muddy handprint on shoulder
oozeball players pose with team
oozeball feild
oozeball
team mates hug
oozeball participant in the deep mud
students laugh as they fall into the mud
oozeball field, birds-eye view
a large splash made when a student falls into the court
oozeball game in session
Oozeball players cheering
Oozeball game in North Campus
Jonathan during oozeball 2022
oozeball team mates