Which school has the best naked running traditions

Grinnell runs naked through campus before they host the "dick" young classic.

princeton had the nude olympics until it was banned in 1999

The University of Florida has the Naked Relays the night following the end of the Florida Relays. It has been going on since the (I'm told early) 1970s.

At midnight, after the Florida Relays is over, teams used to run a naked 4x400 on the track. Spikes, batons, the whole thing. It was very serious, and there were usually a dozen or so teams that participated, including women's teams. I'm told by some old timers that into the 80s there would be several hundred fans in the stands to watch it.

I've never seen this article, so debunk this if you want....Legend has it that in 1984ish, a Sports Illustrated reporter was in the stands watching as Villanova and another team leaned at the line for a very tight finish. There was much argument over who won. The SI reporter put the story in SI. The story came to the attention of the Chancellor of Villanova. The problem is that, Florida Relays sometimes coincides with Easter weekend, and since it was past midnight, they ran this race on Easter Sunday. The chancellor of Villanova was not happy, and called the president of UF. Since then, the UF police have made great efforts to shut down the Naked Relays - at least on campus.

I do know that last part to be true, because the cops are stationed at the track to prevent it from happening there again. Also, I have been present as the cops chased everyone off the golf course one night - naked people fleeing everywhere was quite a sight. I know guys who ran it on a quad in the middle of campus several years before the golf course night. In more recent years, there is a huge after party at some house or apartment complex following the Florida Relays. The Naked Relays have unfortunately been relegated to the party - running around parking lots or around the block. One year the party was a big white house on East University Ave, the exchange zone was the back yard, the runners ran around the block and came through the front door of the house, the living room, the kitchen, then the back door of the house to exchange in the back yard again. Tennessee pulled off the win as Leonard Scott anchored them home. He then strutted around the crowd pounding his chest screaming that we need to "take this shit to the track cuz I'll run 20-point balls hangin out and all!" That night, I think there were 8 men's teams and I know there were two women's teams - Tennessee and (I think) Western Michigan. In those days I was a track official for UF, and we had 5 of us officials at the party "officiating" the race.

Good times. I'd love to see it return to the track, though.

In looking for a few recent articles about Penn State's "Mifflin Streak," which is still alive but recent events suggest it won't be for long, I came across this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streaking_at_educational_institutions

Wow, that's amazing. I believe somewhere in the recesses of my memory I recall a story about that -- not from SI, but just passed along as running lore -- so there's probably at least as much truth as fiction in there. NU didn't compete at the Florida Relays, to the best of my knowledge, so I have no first-hand data. (We would have been one of the first teams to to the line, for sure...)

I'd like to follow-up on this. If you can provide additional detail (on or off the record) hit me up via the contact page at the Faster Than Forty web site.

The Florida relays story was in TFN. In that article they asked the President of the university what he thought of the post race festivities. He said something to the effect of "I wish I'd known, we would have done a press release."

michigan was going strong for a long time. no more.

https://www.michigandaily.com/content/construction-police-hinder-naked-mile

RE: michigan was going strong for a long time. no more.

https://www.michigandaily.com/content/construction-police-hinder-naked-mile

"University spokeswoman Julie Peterson also said the University has spent "a couple thousand" dollars on print ads characterizing the mile as dangerous and a "groper"s paradise..."

...seems like incentive to run fast.

Tufts used to have a naked run. The whole school would get drunk and run around the quad. Apparently it, too, was banned this year despite being a 40 year old tradition.

I think I remember an article in the USA Today wayyyy back about the Florida Relays. I always wanted to get a team down for that. Definitely not something you want to create a Masters category for...

My and my buddies at ________ _________ did 14-milers naked.

"My and my buddies at ________ _________ did 14-milers naked."

If there was even an ounce of truth to that it would be awesome... (And most likely extremely painful... a man needs some support!) The best challenge I ever proposed was Harvard Sq to NU's campus via the Charles River running path, conveniently cutting across the BU campus -- but no one would buy in.

All students must streak the lawn at UVA before they graduate, this tradition is recognized by the University and parents are informed of this tradition at orientation.

My university would walk out to the golf course at night after parties, strip naked, and run an all out half mile. I'm sure it still goes on multiple times a year. We would usually get some of the girls on the team and even just random girls from the party to come out with us and do it. One of the first times I did it, there was about a foot of snow on the ground and people were tackling each other into the powder.

Not sure how I forgot this, but UF also (used to?) host the Jock Jump. Pole vaulters and multi eventers would pole vault in their kick straps. The women vaulters did it one year except they wore underwear and sports bras.

Several US Olympians have taken part in it, including Lawrence Johnson.

It's not running and not completely naked, but worth mentioning.

William & Mary back in the day, seemed like the track team had several naked runs throughout the year. Of course, it is traditional for all students to streak the sunken gardens before graduating. Fun times!

My nephew goes to UVA. This is totally false.

IUP had some solid traditions in this regard:

* All freshmen guys on the XC team, as part of intiation rites, had to run naked through a 1/2 mile of the campus on the way back from a workout. The path was right past the dining hall, during dinner time, and word was spread throughout to ensure that there were many specatators.

* XC House parties (10-12 a year) invariably had a naked, drunken dash of dozens of folks around the campus Oak Grove across the street and back.

* Not naked running, but the annual 3.5 to 4 mile Run N Chug (8 - 10 beers) often found a majority of male entrants sporting panties and bras. The fact that it was run directly through campus as prospective students and their parents were touring made it all the sweeter.

* Might have been a some folks do a few 15 mile runs naked and drunk after a night of barhoping, but these may just be rumors.

Berserker wrote:

My nephew goes to UVA. This is totally false.

Yea it is definitely not false....he probably just does not want to tell you, but it is 100% true.