Homecoming weekend is a weekend of traditions, including building the bonfire, the freshman sweep and the Homecoming parade.
But one Homecoming tradition the College does not wish to preserve is "rushing the field."
There are two sides to this debate: College administrators feel rushing is dangerous and they have been trying to eliminate the practice for safety reasons, while students believe rushing the field, whether or not it is sanctioned by the College, is a display of spirit and enthusiasm for Dartmouth and its traditions.
A Brief History
The debate on rushing the field elicits such passionate reactions from so many people, that it seems surprising that the practice, in its current form, has only existed for about 15 years.
A precursor to rushing the field began in the early 1950s, when members of the freshman class would pour onto the field during half-time of football games and form their class numeral in the middle of the field.
This tradition continued with the approval of the College until the late 1970s, when things began to attract the attention of administrators.
While forming the class numeral on the field, some students began to get rowdy and linger on the field longer than they were supposed to.
A New Tradition
The actions of the then-freshman Class of 1984 forever changed the face of the numeral-forming tradition.
Until 1980, the freshman class sat in the East stands of Memorial Field with the fans of the visiting team. But the Class of 1983 had complained that they felt "alienated" by being separated from the rest of the Dartmouth fans, so the College allowed subsequent freshman classes to move.
At half-time of the first home game of the 1980 season, the '84s stormed across the field into the East stands to sing "Men of Dartmouth."
The practice of storming the field and rushing into the East stands spread like wildfire, for at nearly all subsequent home football games the freshman class felt compelled to flood onto the field and run into the visiting team's stands on the other side of the field.
A College appeal to stop the field-rushing went unanswered, as several hundred '85s stormed the field during half-time of the very first home game in 1981, breaking through a line of 20 to 30 campus and local police.
According to one Safety and Security officer on the scene, the freshmen knocked a 15-year-old boy in a wheelchair to the ground on their way to the field.
The next year, at half-time of the traditional Dartmouth-Harvard game, hundreds of members of the Class of 1986 rushed the field, sauntered into the Harvard stands on the East side of Memorial Field and then surrounded the Harvard band on their way back across the field. The mob was later contained with no violence reported.
After two relatively calmer years, two incidents in 1985 compelled the College to take action.
First, the tradition spread to Harvard Stadium, where visiting Dartmouth freshmen poured onto the field and formed their traditional '89 while dodging both Harvard and Cambridge police.
Then, a week later, at a home game against Princeton, members of the Class of 1989 stormed the field and rushed into the East stands, apparently trampling an elderly woman in a wheelchair in the process.
These incidents were the last straw as far as the College was concerned, and in early September 1986, before the start of the fall football season, the Committee on Standards instituted a ban on rushing the field which took effect immediately.
Despite the new edict, then-Dean of the College Edward Shanahan struck a deal with the Class of 1990 in late October of 1986 that allowed them to participate in an "organized rush," where the freshmen could file into a roped-off section of the East stands in an orderly fashion and sing "Men of Dartmouth."
The plan proceeded well, but as the freshmen were recrossing the field following their organized rush, several hundred of them ran toward the center of the field where the Harvard band was performing and proceeded to circle the band.
After this incident the College vowed to severely crack down on rushing the field.
The College's Position
College Proctor Bob McEwen, who has been at the College since 1967, said the practice was banned because it was just too unsafe.
"For some reason, [the freshmen] started to rush the East stands, which created the problem of injuries to both students and spectators," McEwen said. "There was the problem of trying to provide some type of crowd control without visitors being intimidated and threatened."
McEwen ruled out the possibility of an organized rush, similar to what was attempted unsuccessfully in 1986.
"The problem with an organized rush is it's almost impossible to organize that type of event," he said. "It takes only a handful of people to peel off and run in another direction ... and it's almost an automatic reflex that others will follow."
"You can have 200 Hanover police and 100 campus police down there and you're not going to stop it," McEwen said, "and then it becomes an ugly situation ... where any number of things can happen."
Will History Be Rewritten?
Rushing the field has thinned, but not disappeared completely since the 1986 COS edict.
Dean of Freshman Peter Goldsmith attributed this in large part to the actions of upperclassmen, who he said "unfairly pressure" the freshman class to "Rush the field! Rush the field!" despite the fact it is now against College policy to do so.
Just last year, seven members of the Class of 1998 were arrested after rushing the field at half-time of the home opener against Pennsylvania, and three more '98s rushed the field at half-time of the Homecoming game against Yale.
Since rushing the field began in its current form in the early 1980s, not one year has gone by without at least one freshman rushing the field between the home football opener and the Homecoming game. If the '99s stay off the field tomorrow, the trend will be broken -- and there will probably be a lot of happy officers and administrators.
However, a new tradition may begin tomorrow, if the Class of 1999 goes ahead with its own version of an "organized rush."
Newly-elected Freshman Council President Frode Eilertsen indicated Wednesday night that the Class of 1999 is planning to pour onto the field at the end of tomorrow's game, turn toward the West stands and pose for a picture behind a Class of 1999 banner.
When asked if the College had approved such an "organized rush," Dean of Freshmen Peter Goldsmith said, "To the best of my knowledge, there is no College or Ivy League regulation that prevents students from coming onto the football field at the conclusion of the game. Perhaps that is what the class has in mind, and as long as it is orderly, I see no problem with it."
