About Tribal Fever

The Tribal Fever is a student run fan club focused on William & Mary Athletics.  The goal of The Tribal Fever is to create and maintain a culture of school spirit centered around athletic events and expanding into the College community as a whole.  The Tribal Fever also plans to increase awareness of sporting events on campus with a goal of increasing student attendance at Tribe sports events.  Additionally, we plan to foster opportunities to create a better bond between students and student-athletes.

Started in March 2009 after a poorly attended basketball game, founder Chase Hathaway ’10 met with members of the William & Mary athletic department to brainstorm ideas to increase attendance at games.  After having a focus group with a wide range of students on campus, Chase joined together with the athletic department to develop a timeline for The Tribal Fever.  In May, Chase recruited Alex Ball ’10 to join in on the excitement.  During the summer of 2009, The Tribal Fever was crafted and created… mainly between the hours of 10:00 PM and 3:00 AM after working at their internships.  After spending the summer developing the structure for the organization, some ideas for events and the original website, The Tribal Fever was launched on August 1, 2009.  Initially, Chase and Alex had a goal of having 25 members by August 25th.  By the end of August, the Fever had over 100 members and had booked two 55 passenger busses to take a trip to Charlottesville to watch the Tribe take on arch-rival UVA in the football opener!  The Tribe won.  Tribal Fever won.