MONTEVALLO, Ala. (WIAT) — Holy cow.

Saturday night, in front of a packed house at Palmer Hall, the University of Montevallo’s Purple Side secured a PV (Purple Victory). The win was the culmination of the university’s 104th College Night, often touted as one of the oldest homecoming traditions in the nation.

College Night, unlike other universities’ homecoming festivities, does not center around a football game (the school, which had its start as the Alabama Girls’ Industrial School, has no football team). Instead, the tradition focuses on the performance of two student-run theatre productions — a competition between the school’s respective “sides” — Purple and Gold.

This Saturday, the Purple Side (represented by a cow) crushed the hopes of Golds (represented by a lion), who were hoping to secure a GV for the second year in a row.

Gold’s production — “Starpower! — told the story of an up-and-coming singer who, alongside an established artist, bucks a controlling manager and blossoms into her own.

Purple’s production, titled “Cryptid Conspiracy: The Lost Episode,” centered around radio cohosts trapped in an alternate dimension called “the woods” and the pair’s quest to escape.

In the end, before the winner was even announced, the crowd’s reactions said it all — a PV was imminent. Purples from years past and present crowded in front of the side’s leaders, cast and cabinet. Golds, much more muted than their Purple counterparts, gathered on the opposite side of Palmer Hall. As the shows had concluded, their numbers dwindled quickly, with only the most loyal among them remaining for the announcement of the College Night victors.

As representatives of the school’s Student Government Association announced the PV, the emotion was tangible. Confetti, screams of PV, and advance copies of the Alabamian, the school’s student newspaper, filled the air.

It was a Purple Victory for the ages.