Purple reign: Purple Side claims victory at UM’s 2025 College Night

Published 6:26 pm Monday, February 17, 2025

By Noah Wortham

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By NOAH WORTHAM | Managing Editor

MONTEVALLO – Purple and gold confetti rained down as screams of joy accompanied by grateful tears decorated the faces of Purple Side students. For the College night cabinet, it was the climax and hard-earned result of days of contentious battle and diligent effort. For the seniors, it was the heartfelt answer to their prayers: 2025 was a “PV.”

“It’s a feeling like no other,” Purple Side Leader Troy McMullen said. “I’m still in shock, truthfully.”

The University of Montevallo hosted the final night of its long-running, annual homecoming tradition College Night on Saturday, Feb. 15 at Palmer Hall.

Each year since 1919, UM students pick a side, purple or gold, and then engage in various activities against one another. College Night culminates into a final clash each year with a production put on display by each side. The winner is determined by which side has the highest total number of points.

Both sides gathered together on the stage in the Palmer Hall auditorium on the final night after performing both productions and waited in anticipation as Student Trustee Kendall Miller revealed the results of this year’s College Night through a phrase hidden in the final speech.

“I have an immense amount of pride,” Purple Side Leader Madeline Drain-Dorsey said. “We knew that we could do it. We knew that our side had what it took, but it’s very different actually experiencing that.”

This year’s victory was extra sweet for members of Purple Side, having lost to Gold Side during the 2024 edition of College night.

Purple Side’s production this year was entitled, “The Legacy of the Iron Witch” and told the heartfelt tale of loss, family and grief centered around a cast of witches trying to bring back their mother. With extravagant lighting, choreography and stunning special effects, the show stole the heart of the crowd and judges alike.

“Everyone fought really, really hard, and when we picked this show, we knew we were taking on a beast,” McMullen said. We knew it was going to be a huge chunk of theater, that it was going to be really hard to pull off but I wouldn’t have written it and submitted it and we wouldn’t have picked it as a collective if we didn’t think we could do it right. Tonight was proof that we could.”

McMullen said that the College Night tradition means a lot as a Montevallo student and theater major.

“It’s one of the coolest experiences ever,” McMullen said. “The reason why people choose to do theater is because they want to tell stories that are going to affect people and that was another reason why we picked this script… And after tonight’s show, the whole cast was crying and sobbing because they were just so happy with what they did. And in all my years of playing, I’ve never seen that.”

For Drain-Dorsey, College Night was her introduction to the theatrical world and Purple Side provided her with an accepting family.

“I never did theater growing up. This is something very new to me,” she said. “Before I came to Montevallo, I had barely seen that many theatrical productions. I had never been part of a show ever. Purple Side and College Night as a whole was just so welcoming to us and really brought us in and they didn’t care that I didn’t know much about theater. They just were a family and accepting and so kind. College Night is one of the biggest things that I’ve done, and I can’t imagine not doing it.”

Gold Side’s production for 2025 was entitled, “Masterpiece: The Art of the Clandestine and Confidential” and offered an entertaining “Whodunnit” mystery focused on a cast of larger-than-life secret agents and a couple of aspiring detectives. With enthralling choreography, teasing one-liners and romantic undertones, the show stole the hearts of Gold Side alumni who cheered on the show and stood in solidarity at the end of College Night knowing what it takes to make the show possible.

“Of course, we do always wish it was a ‘GV’ but whenever we did our last circle up, I saw how proud everyone was of each other,” Gold Side Leader Cole Broadhead said. “I saw that a lot of the seniors, even though they didn’t go out with a win, they did go out with a bang and they were proud of what they created.”

Regardless of whether they secure the College Night crown, both sides place a significant amount of effort in their respective productions and annual activities which usually begin with planning and leader selection at the end of February or beginning of March each year. Sides then work together in the fall to select scripts, hold auditions, prepare for sports and then enter full development in the spring. With some students working from 6 p.m. to midnight at times, in addition to their regular workload, College Night is still worth it for the permanent memories and camaraderie that keeps alumni coming back years later.

“College Night is the pinnacle of Montevallo,” Broadhead said. “It oftentimes gives you a lot of insane highs and a lot of insane lows. And even though there are lows, they still help you grow as a person and they help you set up for what you need to be in the future.”

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