Concise Encyclopedia of Tufts History
Sauer, Anne
Branco, Jessica
Bennett, John
Crowley, Zachary
2000
Reverse Panty Raid, 1958
On May 19 and 20, 1958, Tufts experienced one of the first "reverse panty raids" to hit any college in the country. | |
On May 19, 1958, male students held a major panty raid to celebrate the end of the semester. Led by a brass band, almost three hundred male students raided Hodgdon and Stratton. The group then converged on Metcalf Hall, but was met by police. The group dispersed, and order was restored. | |
The next morning, at dawn, the females of 3B Hodgdon led a "short shorts" raid in retaliation for the previous night's activity. Carrying a banner that read "We Want Short Shorts," the Jackson students painted the female biological symbol on fraternity doors and stormed dormitories. They set off fire alarms and banged pots and pans, and some even made off with various pairs of "short shorts." The undergarments were hoisted onto sticks as flags of victory. The male population retaliated by dumping trashcans full of water on the invaders, and the police again arrived on the scene. By that time, however, the raid had ended on its own accord, and order was again restored to the Tufts campus. | |
Source: TW 6/7/58 | |
Subject terms: |