Photo by Hunter Wilson/Daily News Nathan Davis (left), a WKU sophomore from Sandy Hook, passes a ball to Seth Short, a WKU sophomore from Madisonville, during the record breaking attempt.

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Braving a few hours in the cold, a group of Western Kentucky University students attempted to make their mark in the record books Sunday night in an effort that eventually was scuttled by the chilly weather.

A total of 127 WKU students and staff with the school’s Resident Staff Association gathered at the university’s intramural sports complex on Industrial Drive to try to set a new record for the largest game of tunnel ball.

About two hours later, WKU’s attempt to get in the record books ended unsuccessfully with about 20 people left in line as the cold weather sent students inside.

The campaign to get in the Guinness Book of World Records had been several months in the making, according to Nik Mabry, vice president of finance for the RSA.

Looking for ways to build connections among every member of the RSA during a monthly staff meeting at the beginning of the school year, Mabry said the group decided to break a world record.

“We wanted to break a record using the amount of people we had on staff,” said Mabry, a senior from Clarksville, Tenn., while students signed up Sunday ahead of the attempt. “We’ve spent so much time preparing for this. It’s great that we’re working toward something as a team.”

In tunnel ball, the players stand in a single-file line. The person at the front of the line passes a ball over his head to the person behind him, who then hands the ball through his legs to the next person.

That pattern continues until the ball reaches the end of the line, at which point that person goes up to the head of the line to start the process again.

To break the record last night, each of the 127 students had to take a turn at the front of the line. The ball could not hit the ground at any time.

Guinness recognizes a group of 100 Australian schoolchildren as the record holders for the largest tunnel ball game, though a group of 109 High Point University students in North Carolina attempted to break the record earlier this year.

It took some research to find a record to break that would involve the entire staff’s participation, and some additional investigation was required to find out exactly what tunnel ball involves.

“I had actually spent most of this time calling this ‘over-under,’ ” said Steve Briggs, assistant director for housing and residence life, referring to the journey the ball takes as it moves from one person to the next in line.

Briggs got the crowd of students and staff excited in the moments leading up to the attempt, and was at the head of the line to officially begin the game, handing the basketball over his head to the next person in line.

“I’ve heard rumors that some people were practicing in small groups by themselves, but we haven’t practiced this as a whole group,” said RSA president Jeni Nethers, a senior from Elizabethtown.

Organizers of the record-breaking attempt learned that Guinness has exacting standards before it recognizes a successful attempt - Mabry said that extensive paperwork has to be filed with Guinness and at least two independent witnesses and sufficient video documentation would be required for the organization to recognize this attempt.

The group of witnesses on hand last night included four men from the Bowling Green Fire Department.

At the outset, it took about four minutes for the ball to pass from the front to the back of the line.

Nearly everyone was bundled up in anticipation of spending a long time outside in temperatures hovering in the lower 40s.

To pass the time until the ball arrived for them, students talked and sang, with a few jumping in place to stay warm.

Josh Fries, a senior from Louisville and a resident assistant at Douglas Keen Hall, timed each trip up the line with his iPhone.

“I had a pretty good idea of what we were going to be in for, but I didn’t expect it to be this cold,” Fries said.