1,103 receive bids, sprint to their new chapters Sunday afternoon in annual tradition 
There was a certain quiet on the Horseshoe around 2:30 p.m. Sunday.
A few guys threw a football, birds warbled lazily and a small crew built balloon archways.
But what a difference one hour makes.
By 3:30 p.m., the calm before the storm had passed. In its place, whistles, chants and air horns emanated through the heart of campus.
It was Bid Day, and sorority women streamed onto the Horseshoe, donning colored T-shirts and tall socks, bearing noisemakers, silly string and gobs of glitter.
“You only throw glitter when you’re happy,” said Julia Sexton, a second-year political science student and a member of Kappa Delta sorority, “and there’s glitter everywhere.”
They were joined in short order by their sisters-to-be, who poured in in historic numbers along with a drenching rain.
But while the rain led some women to slip on the soaked grass and others’ mascara to run, it did little to damper their spirits.
After accepting their bids, or formal invitations to join the organizations, new members ran past lines of fraternity men and other students to join their new chapters, shrieking, embracing and bouncing excitedly as they did.
“It was the longest run of my life,” recalled Mindy Isaacs, a second-year student whose major is undeclared and a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, of her run down the Horseshoe last year.
All told, 1,377 students registered for rush, according to Katie Spell, assistant director of Fraternity and Sorority Life. Of them, 1,103 received bids Sunday.
That works out to an average quota of 111 new members per chapter, Spell said.
By the evening, both the rain and the crowds had trickled out, and the quiet returned to campus — but vestiges of the day’s festivities stayed.
A lone maintenance worker rode through down the quiet brick paths on a Gator, picking up the glitter, confetti, ripped signs and balloon arches strewn about the lawn, still soaked from the afternoon’s downpour.
Read more in Tuesday's edition of The Daily Gamecock.