The Little 500 is an annual race at Indiana University that has been taking place since 1951. The race is held on the third weekend of April every year. The women’s race is on Friday and the men’s race is on Saturday. Different clubs, and people are allowed to participate as long as they are an amateur, undergrad student who is currently attending Indiana University.

The race was quickly overrun with Greek housing. Most sororities and fraternities participate in the qualifying rounds in hopes of making it to the race. One fraternity in particular is the Delta Xi chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha, or best known as PIKE.

PIKE has been racing since the beginning and was looking forward to competing last year, for the first time in a couple years. That all changed when they were placed on cease and desist just two days before the race. Due to allegations of hazing, they were placed on cease and desist and an investigation had started. While being on C&D you are not allowed to participate in any social functions, Little 500 being one of them. Everything they had trained for all year, was no longer achievable. 

They went to great lengths to try and fight the investigation so they could still race. After taking legal action and working with different alumni, they were able to come to an agreement to race, but not as PIKE. They could not wear their letters, cheer for PIKE, or have any affiliation with them for the weekend. Instead, they had to race under the name “Team 25”.

The brothers of PIKE showed out to the race despite not being able to wear their letters, or verbally cheer for PIKE. Team 25 ended up finishing in 26th place and was still able to celebrate that victory with their brothers, after the race. 

The 2023 bike season started with PIKE only having two returning racers who would be seniors. Other members of the team decided not to return after the 2022 season. They needed to recruit two new members or they would not be able to race due to the lack of bickers. After reaching out to a couple freshmen, they were able to fill their team and begin training.

Joining a bike team requires sacrifice and discipline. You have to train all year round and give up most weekends. Instead of having a typical fraternity lifestyle of parties every weekend, going out, formals, etc., the bike team cannot participate in most of these activities due to their intense training schedule. 

This season was a redemption period for PIKE. They had to come back after not being able to compete as their fraternity, and represent their brothers the way they intended to the previous year.

This year, Pi Kappa Alpha finished in 25th place, placing one higher than they did last year.