Northwest Missouri State University - Tower Yearbook (Maryville, MO)

Page 30 text:

m(B Tuesday, March 5, 1974. Stre aking, the act of running in the nude before unsuspecting observers, was in everyone ' s con- versation. The news media was soon reporting streaks at num- erous points across the country, mostly universities. None as yet at Maryville. But Tuesday night, in minds filled with reports of streakers, ideas were formulating. A male and female streaked around the college pond, in the dark and unnoticed. Trying out their wings, one might say. Wednesday, March 6. It was a warm day, the first in many weeks. Conversations still revolved around streaking tales, and after dark, NWMSU had its first full-scale streaks. Ten to fifteen males streaked around Franken dormitory, screaming to attract the atten- tion of the residents. Hudson Hall had another dozen streakers, with a crowd of about 100 spectators watching them play football and do cartwheels. Meanwhile, groups of streakers appeared all across campus , enough to cause one observer to comment that you couldn ' t look in any direction without seeing at least one streaker. 26 streaking I

Page 29 text:

' i

Page 31 text:

Thursday, March 7. After sundown the campus was mobbed with students milling around waiting for someone to streak again. They didn ' t wait long. The action was at Perrin and Hudson halls. Cars had been pulled up to provide lights for a nude male chorus line. An estimated sixty students paraded around sans clothing. Kansas City radio station WHB reported this as the record streak for a small university. (The University of Georgia captured the overall streaking record with over 1,000 streaking at one time.) Friday, March 8. Dean of Students Phillip Hayes released a bulletin stating that streaking was a violation of the Student Handbook rule that no student should call undue atten- tion to himself. The same day brought a drastic drop in temperature. There was no streaking that night, more because of the temperature and the usual Friday night exodus from campus than from any official warning. And that was the end of the streaking. There were a few more isolated incidences, but never of the magnitude of Thursday the Seventh. But NWMSU never really experienced a true streak. Dancing in a chorus line was more exhibitionism than streaking. Male students would stand in front of Millikan Hall and shout Do you want to see a streaker? When an affirmative answer was returned they would run behind the dorm, take off their clothes, then streak around the building. That ap- proach lacked surprise. It lacked finesse. A true streak involves a, pardon the expression, flash attack. Observers should have been unaware of an imminent streak. Then the streak should have ended almost as quickly as it began. But quickness meant that a streaker had to be in good physical shape. One streaker ran from Millikan, headed for Cooper Hall. As his friends, carrying his clothes, walked by the armory, they heard someone calling them from the bushes. The streaker had gotten tired and, once he stopped running, had become very conscious of his nudity. Streaking is already a past fad, taking its place beside the hula-hoop and gold fish swallowing. But by appearing and disappearing in just a few weeks, streaking was true to its very nature. OL streaking 27