Naked women riding on bicycles, naked fraternity brothers dancing on rooftops, students "sleeping" on the golf course with their dates, one would think these images suitable for the Playboy mansion, but in fact the incidents are all a part of the rich heritage of Dartmouth's Green Key Weekend.
"Harvard men have the brains, Princeton men the clothes, Yalies the conversation, but it's Dartmouth for the sex and stuff," said an undergraduate of Mount Holyoke College visiting Dartmouth during 1951's Green Key Weekend. Not surprisingly, the weekend has its roots in the "natural urges" of Hanover's male population.
Bring on the Women
This year's Green Key Weekend marks the 77th annual celebration of a tradition steeped in craziness. It was the dark, snowy winter of 1899 which prompted the "sons of Dartmouth" to create a Spring House Party Weekend -- featuring fraternity parties, female guests from other colleges, athletic events and a prom -- to allow the Dartmouth men and nearby college's women to "let their hair down" in celebration of Spring.
The class of 1900 had discovered yet another reason to import women onto campus. An excerpt from a 1938 editorial in The Dartmouth says it all: "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."
The Spring House Parties were canceled in 1924 because of the misconduct and wild behavior of Dartmouth men and their dates during previous years. But a replacement emerged with the foundation of the Green Key Society in 1921 which began hosting an annual Spring show.
In 1929 the Society decided to replace the show with a Spring Prom. The administration allowed the dance because it deemed Green Key the only campus organization able to ensure a peaceful weekend.
If a naked woman bicycling around the green is considered peaceful, Green Key succeeded. In 1931, now legendary Lulu McWhoosh, a student at nearby Slippery Mountain Teacher's College, took a tour of Dartmouth's Green before church services while riding naked on her bicycle. The College did not find the antic amusing and Green Key Weekend was canceled for three years.
From 1943 to 1945 the prom was canceled due to World War II.
In 1948 disaster struck the "sons of Dartmouth" when 166 female students at Colby Jr. College (now Colby-Sawyer) voluntarily admitted to drinking alcohol on school grounds the weekend before Green Key. They were convicted by the Colby Superior Court of underage drinking and sentenced to a minimum of one week campus confinement.
Over 300 Dartmouth men, some faced with the prospect of a dateless Green Key Weekend, signed a petition asking Colby to lift its punishment. The Colby Superior Court stuck to its guns and the girls stayed home.
The golf course served a new purpose in 1954. Hanover Police raided the golf course at 4 am. and closed it because of "misuse of the town's normally afforded pleasure privileges" by 69 Dartmouth students and dates.
The police were in the area because earlier that night then-Police Chief Andrew Ferguson had found a student in the middle of the eighth hole possessing hot dogs, rolls, mustard, cupcakes, coffee, Canadian Club, Alka-Seltzer, marijuana and heroin.
During the sexually-charged 1960s the "outdoor sleep" became a popular tradition. Dartmouth men and their dates brought sleeping bags, pillows, blankets, and mattresses onto the golf course for the night.
Meanwhile, town residents started complaining that their children were being exposed to the "less puritan" aspects of the life of Dartmouth men, so the College sent out officers armed with bullhorns and sprinklers to wake the sleeping students at dawn. This unfriendly wake-up call eventually caused the students to abandon the tradition.
The prom was again discontinued in 1967 when ex-governor of Alabama, George Wallace, known for his attempts to block integration in his home state, was trapped in his car by a ring of students for five or six hours. The Ball was never held again.
Eight fraternities were busted in 1987 when an undercover police officer accompanied an 18-year-old woman into several fraternity parties where she was served alcohol. The parties were shut down but no charges were filed.
Today the purpose of Green Key Weekend has shifted dramatically since its inception in 1899. These days the weekend centers around outdoor bands, sporting competitions, and, of course, fraternity parties.
Good ol' Traditions
Dartmouth has always been awash with traditions, and Green Key Weekend has provided plenty of examples during its many years.
Hums began as a serious evening of singing in 1899 and became a competition among fraternities by 1937. But in the 1970s the content of Hums songs became more humorous and in 1976 many members of the Dartmouth community were enraged with Kappa Kappa Kappa fraternity's rendition of the song "Our Cohogs."
Another unique Dartmouth occasion was the "Wetdown Ceremonies" which began in 1880.
During these ceremonies newly elected student government representatives were drenched with lemonade, beer and raw eggs. As time passed, the Wetdown Ceremonies became more violent and saw the addition of belt-whipping.
In 1966 the administration suggested chariot races as an alternative to the Wetdown Ceremonies. Chariots, made to resemble those of Roman warriors, raced in laps around the Green and were pelted with a mixture of eggs, flour and fruit chunks along the way. Prizes were awarded for the fastest, slowest and best-looking entrants.
A fist fight broke out between the brothers of Gamma Delta Chi and Beta Theta Pi in 1976 due to allegations of chariot sabotage and the races were discontinued in 1984.
The 1960s also saw piano smashing contests where fraternities competed to determine "the champion piano smashing team at the College."
Musical guests
Some of the best and most popular bands have dropped by Hanover during Green Key Weekend. In 1929, the famous Earl Fuller Jazz Band performed on campus promising to "make your brain swirl and your feet tickle the floor in a mean way."
Tommy Dorsey and Artie Shaw, well-known swingers of the Big Band era, came in 1938. The Shirelles performed in 1963.
But none of these bands attracted as much attention and as large an audience as the Grateful Dead. In 1978, the band played in Thompson Arena for three hours to thousands of "dead heads" who had invaded Hanover for their performance.
Alpha Delta fraternity's lawn and porch were graced by the rock band Anthrax in 1982 and Blues Traveler in 1988. When Rolling Stone wrote an article in September 1992 for its College Issue, author Eric Konigsberg '91 used AD and Green Key weekend as his backdrop. A picture caption in the story read, "Drink Till You Boot: Green Key Party 1989."
In 1995 several AD brothers decided to "let it all hang out" as they line danced naked on the roof of AD.
Green Key Weekend remains a good time for all and a chance to celebrate the sun, warmth, and beauty of Hanover in the Spring. Steve Winship '41 described the simple pleasures of Green Key Weekend:
"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."
