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Panty raid

A panty raid is a social prank in which a group of male college students intrude in a female college student housing to steal their "panties" (undergarments) from drawers as trophies. The notion of a panty raid dates back at least to the mid-1940s, though the term dates to February, 1949. This kind of prank faded away at the end of the 1960s.

History

The first fully documented incident occurred on March 21, 1952, when a large group of male University of Michigan students raided a female dormitory. This led to a widespread increase of panty raids across the nation. Penn State's first panty raid involved more than 2,000 males marching on the women's dorms on April 8, 1952, cheered on by the women, who opened doors and windows as fast as the matrons could lock them, and tossed lingerie. By the end of the 1952 spring term the "epidemic" had spread to 52 campuses, despite stern warnings, the use of tear gas by police, arrests, and expulsions.

Generally, the girls welcomed the raiders, and in some cases themselves raided the campuses of men's colleges such as Georgetown University. At the University of Washington, though, panty raiders broke windows at sorority houses, and coeds at Christian College and Stephens College fought to repel raiders from the University of Missouri using mops and Coke bottles as weapons.

It was the first college craze in the post-World War II era, following on the 1930's crazes of goldfish swallowing or seeing how many could fit in a phone booth. Raiding continued, perhaps diminished a bit in following years, such as the raid by Princeton University men on Westminster Choir College in the spring of 1953. The University of Nebraska was credited with the first panty raid of 1955, when hundreds of men raided the women's dorms to grab panties, resulting in seven suspensions and multiple injuries. The University of California, Berkeley had a 3,000 man panty raid in May 1956, which resulted in $10,000 damage. At the University of Michigan panty raids were associated with fall football pep rallies in addition to being a spring ritual in the 1950's and early 1960's. The spring ritual continued in the 1960's. Three students were expelled from the University of Mississippi for panty raids in 1961.

As the 1960's turned to the 1970's, the prevalence of coed dorms, less inhibited attitudes toward sex on campus, and the anti-war movement led to a fading away of panty raids as a spring ritual. In 1969, then-Governor of California Ronald Reagan decried permissive attitudes toward protesters on the Berkeley campus during the People's Park riots, saying "How much farther do we have to go to realize this is not just another panty raid?

References

Referenced from the Augustana Observer, interview with Kai Swanson.

The first incident occurred on February 25, 1949 at Carlsson Hall at Augustana College in Rock Island, IL. The hall was an all-female dorm starting in the year 1928. In the 1920s men were not allowed in the hall, but during the '30s many men tried to sneak in and try to steal something. With the GI Bill passing in 1944 the meaning of "fun" was completely changed. On February 25, 1949 one man, John Anderson who was also know n as "Cousin Anderson," had seen combat in WWII and sent groups of boys into the residence hall as if commanding an infantry. There were 150 men who stormed the building, taking the housemother and locking her in a broom closet and went through the building claiming different articles as trophies. The girls were in absolute hysterics. When the police arrived only one article seemed to be missing from the girls' rooms: panties. The story hit papers throughout the United States but the President of the College, Conrad Bergendoff, was devastated about the incident and many people stopped talking about it. When he died it was brought up again throughout the college and Cousin Anderson's daughter was actually able to get a video of her father telling the whole story.