A: Different colleges are known for having different specialties. UPenn’s well-known for its business program. The engineering department at MIT tops the charts. And when it comes to prank-pulling, there's CalTech – the school where pranking is practically a major.
Case in point: the 1961 Rose Bowl. Since the Rose Bowl game is played in CalTech’s backyard of Pasadena, the students and their head pranksters, the Fiendish 14, were miffed at the lack of publicity the event generated for their school. But what better way to solve this problem than to go about creating their own publicity? That year’s game was between the University of Washington and the University of Minnesota, and CalTech pranksters had learned there was going to be an elaborate halftime spectacle (planned by the Washington cheerleaders) involving 2,232 flip cards.
One CalTech student, disguised as a high school newspaper reporter, interviewed Washington’s head cheerleader to learn a bit more. CalTech students stole one of the flip cards, made 2,232 copies of it, altered each one by hand, and then swapped them with the real cards while the Washington cheerleaders were visiting Disneyland. The next day, live on national television, thousands of Washington Huskies fans held up cards that were supposed to make one big picture of a Husky. Instead, viewers were treated to the big ole sight of a Beaver, CalTech’s mascot! One of the next card formations read “Seiksuh” (a gentle jab at the Huskies when read in reverse). And finally, the pièce de resistance: Washington fans raised cards that read in giant letters, “CalTech.” Leave it to beaver fans to pull a grand prank like that.
Article comments
1 - Michael Hartl
Indeed, 'twas the greatest of all time, but the cards spelled out CALTECH, and the perpetrator was Caltech (with a lower-case t).
Cheers,
Michael Hartl
Caltech Ph.D. '03
2 - Mike Samples
Yale's "We Suck" is the grandest prank in American football. It was brilliant and witty. Nothing illegal was done. Read about it in Wikipedia.