This year marks the 73rd Green Key Weekend in Dartmouth's history. For some this will be their first experience with the most popular spring event; for others, it is old hat.
But all can agree the event has changed dramatically since its conception in 1899.
"Hanover is God's gift to women this weekend as hundreds of the proverbially fair sex invade the New Hampshire plain from the world at large. By train, car, hook or crook the belles will barge into this normally peaceful hamlet."
This excerpt from a 1938 editorial in The Dartmouth provides insight into one of the main reasons behind the founding of Green Key Weekend -- Dartmouth men needed a way to attract women to campus.
After the dark, bleak winter of 1899, the men of Dartmouth were desperate for a way to celebrate spring. The creation of Spring Houseparties Weekend -- a collection of fraternity parties, women, athletic events and a prom -- provided a way for the "sons of Dartmouth" to unleash their pent-up winter energy. A tradition was instantly born.
The weekend continued annually until the creation of the Green Key Society. Green Key took control of the weekend in 1921.
Lulu and the eighth green
One legendary Green Key Weekend incident involved Lulu McWhoosh, a student at nearby Slippery Mountain Teacher's College in 1931.
Inspired by the revelry of the weekend, McWhoosh rode around the Green naked on a bicycle. The Lady Godiva-style incident prompted the College to cancel Green Key Weekend for three years.
In keeping with eccentricities, the Hanover police closed the Hanover Country Club golf course in 1954 because the "misuse of the town's normally afforded pleasure privileges" by 69 students and their dates at 4 a.m. Saturday morning.
Hanover Police Chief Andrew Ferguson had discovered a student eating in the middle of the eighth green just an hour earlier, prompting the police to patrol the area.
The student was arrested and found to be in possession of a Canadian Club, cupcakes and hot dogs, as well as marijuana and heroin.
By the 1960s, hundreds of students and their dates were participating in the Green Key tradition of camping out on the golf course, bringing with them blankets, pillows and sometimes mattresses.
Residents of Hanover complained to the College that they were disturbed by the blatant exposure their children were receiving to the "less puritan" aspects of Dartmouth life.
The College sent caretakers with bullhorns and sprinklers to wake the students at dawn. Threatened with being soaked with water, the students fled the golf course in droves. The tradition was soon abandoned.
The prom
In 1929, the Spring Prom was created to replace the variety show that had previously existed. The prom grew in popularity and more and more women poured into Hanover to partake in the festivities.
The Dartmouth published the names of fraternity brothers' dates who were spending the weekend in Hanover.
The minutes from the April 15, 1930 meeting state that "the financial success and popular reception by the student body of the Green Key Prom have assured its repetition for future years."
The Green Key Handbook outlines the purpose of the prom. "Coming in the last month of the junior year of the Green Key men, the Prom provides a fitting climax to a year of College service and adds to an ever increasing number of happy memories."
Of course freshmen were excluded from Green Key Weekend activities. They were not allowed to have dates or attend fraternity parties and had to spend the weekend in the main room of Thayer Dining Hall.
Between 1951 and 1961, a pre-prom banquet was added to the festivities by the Green Key Society. According to the 1961 Green Key Handbook, the banquet was created so outgoing members of the society could gather one last time before the new members took over. The banquet is still held today.
The prom was cancelled in 1967 following a student riot after a speech by former Alabama Governor George Wallace, who spoke at Dartmouth the Friday before Green Key Weekend. Students surrounded Wallace's car for five or six hours, refusing to let him pass. The prom was never held again.
Grateful Dead and others
In the past, one of the highlights of Green Key has been the musical talent that the weekend attracts. In 1919, the Earl Fuller Jazz Band performed on campus.
Tommy Dorsey and Artie Shaw, two of the most well known swing talents of the Big Band era, came for Green Key in 1938.
The Sherelles, a popular vocal group in the sixties, graced Green Key Weekend with their presence in 1963.
Perhaps the biggest musical attraction in Green Key Weekend's history is the Grateful Dead's 1978 performance in Thompson Arena. The band performed for three hours to thousands of "dead heads" and was widely considered one of the most successful concerts in the history of Green Key Weekend.
Bicycles and piano smashing
Another tradition of Green Key is the Tuck Mall Bicycle Race. The race was started in 1963 and various teams representing different academic areas competed. Miss Bike, chosen by the Tuck School students, began the race by tossing out the first bicycle.
More than 1,500 students watched the Tuck Truss-Busters win the race, defeating the Virgin Surgeons of Dartmouth Medical School and the Thayer Engineering Square Roots.
Since the ending of the Green Key Prom in 1967, the weekend has evolved into a collection of athletic and musical events and an abundance of fraternity parties.
In fact, fraternity parties have become such a part of Green Key Weekend that the Sept., 1992 Rolling Stone article on Alpha Delta fraternity contained a picture caption reading, "Drink Till You Boot: Green Key, 1989."
But in the past fraternities used to take a sporting role in Green Key Weekend activities.
For three decades following the first Green Key Prom, Psi Upsilon and Beta Theta Pi fraternities held a bicycle marathon from Hanover to Amherst. A member from each house would take shifts riding the bike, while the other brothers followed in cars filled with beer and water.
In the 1960s, the unique event was the piano smashing contest between Chi Phi (now Chi Heorot) and Pi Lambda Phi fraternities, which, according to an edition of The Dartmouth, competed to determine "the champion piano smashing team at the College."
While Green Key Weekend has certainly changed a lot over the years, it has remained faithful to its purpose of providing fun activities after the long winter.
Steve Winship '41, summed up the significance of Green Key Weekend in a 1985 interview with The Dartmouth:
"One of the charms of Green Key is its informality. There is none of the ballyhoo of Winter Carnival. It was our own party, you had your best girl, good weather and it was something very memorable. It was one of many reasons for remembering Hanover in such a pleasant fashion."
