“In the Spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.”
Alfred Lord Tennyson, “Locksley Hall” (1842)

Are the words from Tennyson’s poem true at Wabash College? Well, not always. Sometimes in the spring at Wabash a young man’s fancy turns to water fights.

In a May 23, 1964 letter that I wrote my parents, I described the all-campus water fight that had occurred the night before. The Delts and Phi Delts started the melee by attacking the Beta house. Pretty soon the Delts, Phi Psis, and Tekes (then living in the Kane House) had joined the fracas. I recall that one of my Beta brothers started a small fire on the sidewalk leading down from the Beta house. In due time Crawfordsville’s finest had arrived with a police squad car, a fire truck, and a riot vehicle. Of course, our beloved Dean Norman Moore made an appearance. Before long, Dean Moore and several policemen had been doused. The late-night “party” ended with the singing of “Old Wabash.”

Just after we had sung “Old Wabash,” someone from the crowd shouted, “Let’s go to DePauw.” This must have sent a chill up the back of Dean Moore because six years earlier an all-campus water fight had erupted. After it had ended, about 125 Wabash men did go to DePauw in a ten-car caravan. The ensuing water fight at DePauw involved about 1,000 students and a number of Wabash men ended up in the Greencastle jail.

I am attaching a photo from an old Beta Theta Pi scrapbook. I do not know who took the photo but it pictures Betas on the third floor balcony which overlooks Wabash Avenue. As one can readily observe, we used anything that could hold water … balloons, waste baskets, plastic bags of various types, and even large kitchen pots.

Storyteller: Phil Coons ‘67

Related stories:

• The Great Wabash – DePauw Water Fight of 1958
• Fun in Crawfordsville
• Fraternity Rivalries: Needles & Sledgehammers
• Wabash College Chaperones
• Campus Unity Tours: An Unique Wabash Tradition

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