at LeMoyne College in Syracuse. This tradition stretches back many years, and is basically a day for all students to skip class and get drunk beyond all comprehension. The dining hall sets up grills outside, most classes are cancelled, and fun is had by all. Public drunkenness reigns; it's a great way to end the academic year.The name of Dolphy Day has a few different potential origins. Some say it has something to do with jazz legend Eric Dolphy
; my issue with this theory is that, besides a choral group, the school is not musically oriented. I tend to believe that Dolphy is a corruption of "Dolphin," which is the school mascot. When you're too drunk to feel your own face, "Dolphy" would be a reasonable interpretation of that word.From what I remember of my first Dolphy Day, I lived on campus, and after a few days of D-Day alarms, with M-80s going off outside my window, the day began at 4 a.m.
The day was damp and dark, and a hill on the quad got completely muddy from the weather, spilled beer and the amount of people trouncing around. I spent a lot of it covered from hair to foot in mud. Apparently, sliding down the muddy slope seemed like a good idea the first time I did it. The second time I was so filthy that it didn't seem to matter. I also remember eating donuts, not being able to tie my shoes, a nap in someone's lounge, and thinking "wow, hundreds of college students too blasted to stand. Cool."
Their alumni office, rather than try to ignore this time-honored tradition, actually sent out an email to let their graduates know that today was the day, complete with a slideshow. I appreciated it.
University of Rochester used to go one better. Our D-Day was called Dandelion Day-- the school colors are blue and yellow, our teams are called The Yellowjackets, and our school flower is the dandelion.
Yellowjacket Day is in the Fall, and is not as drunken, but is a good time for returning students to have parties.
D-day was scheduled for the Saturday that began Reading Week. Nobody had classes. Nobody had yet to crunch for exams. Everybody had the day free. The frats would start off the day with a Power Hour and a keg toss; the Rugby team would invite the neighboring community college over for a scrum, which would rapidly deteriorate into coed nude mudwrestling, and the student union would host a big outdoor concert. (My freshman year, it was Moxy Fruvous.)
Everyone gets wasted, including Campus Safety. They hire carnival rides and frats have races through the bouncy castles.
However, in my senior year, they were cracking down on it, and it may no longer be as it was except in the hearts of alums.
Every year I would get horribly sunburnt.
Awesome. We had a drinking contest once a year. Time trials. Each college sent a team. It's actually pretty impressive. So "Tang Practice" was always a good excuse to drink, just about any time you wanted.