Mad Bowl, Easters 1975 Photo by Ed Roseberry
The University’s Easters celebrations began innocently enough in the late 19th century as formal dances, held Monday through Saturday of the week following Easter Sunday. In those early days of Easters, students pledged that they would not attend the evening’s dance if they’d had a drink of alcohol after noon of that day. “These formal dances were in glaring contrast to the carryings-on at Easters in the 1970s, when many students and their dates wallowed about in mudholes, swilling grain alcohol drinks from large fruit juice cans,” wrote Virginius Dabney in Mr. Jefferson’s University. The sense of decorum that infused those early Easters dances gradually gave way to weekends of revelry that centered on the Rugby Road area. In 1939, when spring vacation was scheduled the same week as Easters, students voted to forgo spring break so they wouldn’t miss “the most enjoyable part of the year,” according to Corks & Curls.
In the early ‘70s, rain and water hoses transformed Mad Bowl and the yards of fraternity houses into mud pits, and seemed to wash away the last vestiges of restraint. Easters had become the mud-caked spectacle that Playboy magazine called “the best party in America.”
The collateral damage suffered by the newly renovated McCormick Road dormitories was particularly galling to University administrators. The mud that found its way to the dorms clogged shower drains, flooding entire floors.
Students from around the country flocked to Grounds in ever-increasing numbers to attend Easters. In 1976, an estimated 15,000 people packed Mad Bowl and the surrounding area for a raucous party that signaled both the peak and the beginning of the end for Easters.
The event—with its huge crowds and attendant mayhem—had become unmanageable. “It was becoming obvious that a halt would have to be called on these stupefying collegiate gambols,” Dabney wrote.
The Mad Bowl party was the first casualty during a several-year period in which Easters festivities were either phased out or moved to alternate locations. In the fall of 1982, Robert Canevari, dean of students, recommended ending the University tradition of “Big Weekends.” While other weekends such as Openings and Midwinters were allowed to continue, a final decision was made to terminate Easters, despite considerable student protest.
Comments
Lets bring back Easters, fellows.
Who remembers the ugly yellow T shirts that everyone had to wear to get into the last official Easters party at Lambeth Field with The Skip Castro Band?
I was there in 1976 with my now husband of 30 years , this was the one party we both will never forget!
Concerning this party: for the insider story
http://blog.hamptonterrace.com/bid/45076/The-Best-Party-in-America-1975-Easters-Revisited-Pt-1
And for the rest of the story:
http://blog.hamptonterrace.com/bid/45121/The-Best-Party-in-America-1975-Easters-Revisited-conclusion
There was a spirit about the entire Easters Week that has been lost. Never have so many people enjoyed themselves in an overall relative calm and in such a small geographic area. It seems that the problems and issues with alcohol and drugs are more pronounced now. One has to wonder if the over-programming, control and pushing behavior into the shadows hasn’t contributed more than any can appreciate.
Do I hear a call for an Easter Resurrection?
I’d have to say good riddance. It was a muddy, drunken mess, and I wouldn’t send my kid—male or female—to a school with an event like that.
While I clearly understand why Easters had to be cancelled, I will also never forget the spirited fun and unbridled camaraderie of Easters 1978, my first year at the U. I feel very fortunate to have experienced this huge, magnificent ‘Best Party in America’ before it vanished into history.
I was there in 1975. Junior Walker and the Allstars played in Mad Bowl. Little Feat and Bonnie Raitt played at U Hall, and UVA beat Maryland in lacrosse. I lost my twin brothers who were juniors in high school. Much beer consumed. It was great, time of my life.
I was there from 1977-1981 and my daughter will enter as a first year this fall. I’m very fond of my memories of Easters, of walking down Rugby Road amid a huge crowd, everyone happy and having a great time. I’m both relieved and sad my daughter will never experience Easters.
Easters was the party of the century. For the student body who participated, it was an absolute blast. I am now 53 and I remember the debachery fondly! Bring it back. it was a cathartic experience!
Oh the memories of Easters! In the 60s, I would sojourn to Charlottesville for the annual Easters hootenanny and I would have a real humdinger of a time. As a utility company executive, I had to keep a low profile while in NC, however, Easters typically allowed me to kick up my heels and drop my drawers. I remember one particular Easters during which I got hopped up on some “experimental substance” and cheap hooch when, the next thing I knew, I was standing atop the Rotunda, waving my John Thomas northward and exclaiming, “Come and get it, Mrs. Jefferson!”. I still guffaw at the thought of that!
I miss those days.
@Dave Snow: I still have the ugly yellow t-shirt. I’m thinking about scanning the design and putting it on an, ahem, slightly larger t-shirt.
My first year at the U was 1977 and was a direct consequence of my visit, as a senior in high school, to Easters in 1976…
It was the experience of a lifetime, rivalling Woodstock, but in a collegiate way!
Ahhhhh, Back In The day!
Animal house on steroids!
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