For the athletically inclined, the Programming Board will introduce the Green Key Olympics this year to this spring weekend's list of events.
The first Green Key Olympics is part of an effort by the College Programming Board to find "something [they] could do on the Green that everyone would enjoy," said Brian Greenberg '95, a member of the Programming Board.
The Olympics are decathlon-style and "will feature a series of traditionaland not-so-traditional, country-fair games," Greenberg said.
The decathlon events will include: a pie eating contest, tricycle race, Collis bagel shot put, Thayer Dinning Hall tray discus toss, three-legged race, basketball shooting contest and a long-distance egg toss.
Competition in the Olympics is open to any organization, dorm, society or group of friends. The teams can have up to eight members, Greenberg said.
"This year, [this Programming Board event] has exploded without a doubt," he said. "We've had a much higher turn out from non-Greek organizations."
Director of Student Programming Linda Kennedy said "it will probably be more successful because people don't need to plan in advance."
Since the end of the Greek Games in the late 1980's, Green Key weekend has lacked an event through which students can show off their athletic abilities.
The Greek games were "just something the CFS did on and off for the last decade," Kennedy said.
Greenberg said the Programming Board developed the Green Key Olympics "from scratch," but also said it considered having chariot races this year.
"We were going to bring back the chariot races, but we decided it wouldn't work," he said. "For now, we're just trying to put a lot of events on the green."
Greenberg said he thinks this strategy would work because "all you really need on this campus to have a good time is to have people around."
Few people remember the details of why the Greek Games were terminated, Coed Fraternity Sorority Council Programming Chair Andrew Koh '96 said.
"I heard it ended because it got a little violent. There were basically no rules to the chariot races and there were eggs thrown and various other things," Koh said.
The Greek Games originated out of the "Wetdown Ceremonies" in 1880 in which students were given the opportunity to drench newly elected student government representatives with beverages like lemonade and beer.
As the ceremonies became rowdier, the College restructured them as a parade to temper the excitement of the event. But the parade gradually evolved into a race in which students tried to smash through two rows of seniors.
By 1950, it had evolved into a gauntlet race and when students began to hit each other with more dangerous items along with the requisite flour, eggs and rotten tomatos, the College prohibited the use of large belt buckles as a means of getting through the wall of seniors.
Later, the parade merged with the annual Tuck Drive bicycle race so the competitors could pass through the wall of seniors more efficiently.
The chariots were designed as scale models of original Roman chariots or were made with modern changes such as V-4 engines and all-weather tires.
Chariot designers gave their vehicles names like "Thunderbolt" and "Wild Thing."
At least one person rode on the chariot while four others pulled it trying to avoid the well-aged fruit being thrown at them.
The first fight broke out in 1976 between Gamma Delta Chi and Beta Theta Pi fraternities.
After 1984, the College decided that too many injuries resulted from the chariot races and created a relay with a series of six games.
Koh said the only carry over from the Greek Games to the Green Key Olympics was athletic competition. He said it would be difficult to base the Olympics on the Greek Games because no one remembers the Games well enough.
