Students at the University have been sledding since the 19th century, and now that Punxsutawney Phil has graced us with six more weeks of winter, the Argives column this week is taking a trip down Foss Hill.
“When there’s snow on the ground, Foss Hill replaces Olin as the place to pick up ladies,” Jody Avirgan ’02 said in the Feb. 1, 2000 issue of The Argus.
This may be true. It’s hard to make eyes at someone over a copy of “On the Genealogy of Morality,” after all.
“It’s easier to meet the ladies when [your] face is hidden behind [a] scarf,” Hugh Robbins ’03 quipped.
Oh, Hugh, you poor thing.
As then-Features Editors Rebecca Schiff ’01 and Ben Van Heuvelen ’02 wrote in “Snow-Capped Foss Entices Crowds,” the sledders came from humble beginnings.
“Most Wesleyan students do not own traditional commercially manufactured sleds,” observed the article’s authors, which is a very Marxist way to describe fun.
On a similar topic, repurposing materials for sleds has been a long-running University tradition.
“Certain things don’t work as sleds,” Brian Cheigh ’00 informed readers. “Cardboard. Aluminum.”
Well, Christ, Cheigh. Tell the people what they want.
“MoCon trays work best,” Cheigh said.
And this Argus reporter wonders if he will ever be happy in the modern Usdan age.
“The most creative sleds tend to result in the most spectacular disasters,” reported authors Schiff and Van Heuvelen.
Sarah Erlinder ’03, for instance, went on to describe an inventive attempt to commandeer a metal bike rack down the hill.
“The most dangerous place is behind the observatory,” Cheigh said. “When it’s icy, you go all the way past MoCon onto Wyllys [Avenue]. It is so dangerous.”
What fun!
Some Wesleyan students pursued sledding professionally, such as the University’s 1997 “Team Dream Cream” toboggan crew. In the Feb. 4, 1997, article entitled “Students Get More Than They Toboggan For,” then-Sports Editor Ike Walker ’99 reported on the University’s premiere sledding enthusiasts.
Walker reported that the crew competed at the 1997 US National Tobogganing Championship in Camden, Maine.
Read on, dear reader.
The team—Aaron Hilliard ’00, Annika Hawkins ’00, Nate Smith ’00, Dan Eckels ’00, and Josh Bernstein (Amherst ’00)—was one of only a few college crews racing down the 400-foot wooden chute at the Camden Snow Bowl that weekend.
But on the New Hampshire highway, the roof rack on Hawkins’ Ford Explorer fell off, and the team’s 10-foot and six-foot sleds came crashing down.
“I thought we were finished,” Smith said. “I figured we’d just have to turn around at that point, but we still had one sled.”
With sled smashed but morale merry, the team formally entered the tournament under the name The Wesleyan Wipeouts.
“I think we finished dead last,” Smith said. “Our first run was earlier in the day and it was warm so the track was slushy and slow. Our second run was later and we got a more typical time, but we were still slow.”
Nevertheless, the cream crew, adorned in Mug Root Beer shirts, promised a return.
“Maybe we’ll get a whole busload up there next year,” Hilliard said. “If you’ve conquered sitting, I think you’ve conquered the toboggan.”
According to the Feb. 10, 1998 article titled “Winter Tobogganing Becomes Tradition At Wesleyan” and written by then-Photo Editor Mandy Sayle ’01, Wesleyan’s Team Dream Cream returned to Camden in 1998, this time in the form of two crews: the men’s team, Da Honeywagon, and the women’s team, WET (Wesleyan Experimental Tobogganing).
They were still not very good.
“The funny thing is, as we were tobogganing, we thought we were doing really well,” returning tobogganer Smith said. “Until we came back and checked the scores. [Tobogganing] takes a lot more skill than expected.”
As the tobogganers discovered, waxing is the name of the game.
“On the second day of competition, unsatisfied with the wax used on the first day, the men’s team used fat-free, lo-cal, butter-flavored PAM cooking spray on the sled instead,” Sayle wrote.
It didn’t work.
The trip was not without other logistical tribulations, and team member Luke Del Tredici ’00 was forced to stay on campus because there weren’t enough seat belts in the cars.
“The whole thing is bullshit. It’s just a farce,” Del Tredici said. “I mean really, it’s just a bunch of kids on sleds with hats.”
Thomas Lyons can be reached at trlyons@wesleyan.edu.
“From the Argives” is a column that explores The Argus’ archives (Argives) and any interesting, topical, poignant, or comical stories that have been published in the past. Given The Argus’ long history on campus and the ever-shifting viewpoints of its student body, the material, subject matter, and perspectives expressed in the archived article may be insensitive or outdated, and do not reflect the views of any current member of The Argus. If you have any questions about the original article or its publication, please contact Archivists Lara Anlar at lanlar@wesleyan.edu, Hope Smith at hnsmith@wesleyan.edu, and Maggie Smith at mssmith@wesleyan.edu.