At one point a three-day festival complete with a minstrel show and a street parade, today's Green Key weekend bears little resemblance to the holiday's debut in May of 1899. The inaugural spring celebration, then referred to as "Spring Houseparties Weekend," featured fraternity parties on Webster Avenue and a bicycle parade in which visiting women competed for awards such as best decorated wheel and costume, according to a 1899 article in The Dartmouth.
Within two decades, a prom ball later known as the "Junior Promenade" also became an integral part of the weekend's celebrations.
The nature of the spring weekend transformed upon the formation of the Green Key Society as an honorary society in 1921. The society which was established to welcome and assist visiting sports teams, freshmen and other Dartmouth visitors quickly assumed responsibility for organizing the spring weekend's events, especially the ball.
A formal dance with live music, the ball allowed Dartmouth men to invite hundreds of college women from the area to visit the all-male campus for the weekend.
The dance was cancelled in 1924 due to student misconduct and "rowdy" behavior, but was later reestablished in 1929 because the prom was considered by students to fill a social void, since it was the only large dance of the year.
Controversy struck the College in 1931 when Lulu McWoosh, a student from a neighboring college, rode her bicycle around the Green completely naked prior to morning church services. The event prompted College officials to cancel the Green Key festivities for the next three years.
New traditions related to the Green Key Ball evolved over the years, including a battle of the bands competition that began in 1934 and the selection of the first Green Key prom queen in 1944. In 1958, the ball organizers changed the formal event to one allowing informal attire.
After students protested the College's decision to invite controversial segregationist George Wallace to speak on campus in 1967, College administrators cancelled the Green Key Ball. Wallace, then the governor of Alabama, was also a U.S. presidential candidate at the time.
A lesser-known Green Key tradition was the Freshman Dance, which was often hosted in Thayer Dining Hall. The dance provided social activities for freshmen and unaffiliated men since many fraternities held closed house parties during Green Key.
Another prominent feature of Green Key weekend were fraternity house parties, which were banned in 1931 due to the administration's concerns about disorderly conduct. The ban was lifted in 1934, the year that fraternities began hosting female guests in their houses. Since the female visitors stayed in fraternity brothers' living quarters, men were not allowed to venture above the first floor of the houses that weekend.
In 1954, Hanover Police arrested 69 students and dates at 4 a.m. for misusing the town's "normally-afforded pleasure privileges" by spending the night at the Hanover Country Club golf course. Several students were engaged in "inappropriate behavior" and others were found in possession of several illegal drugs.
Throughout the early 1960s, the traditional "outdoor sleep" on the golf course increased in popularity. The College outlawed the activity in 1965, however, after a local parent complained about the students' inappropriate behavior.
In Wetdown, a Green Key tradition that celebrated the inauguration of newly elected class and organization officers, the student government officers were pelted with food and water by seniors as they ran across the Green.
A tradition of chariot races on the Green was instated in 1966 to replace the Wetdown, due to the increasing violence of the event. In the races, teams of four fraternity brothers completed one lap around the Green as they pulled chariots with at least two wheels and one standing rider.
During the chariot races, it was common for spectators to throw projectiles at the racers. While no actions were taken to punish those that threw raw eggs, hard-boiled egg-throwers were fined $25 for their infraction. The egg-throwing practice ended after a student suffered a mild concussion when he was hit in the head by a projectile.
The traditional interfraternity singing competition, Hums in which fraternity men sang original songs on the steps of Dartmouth Hall began in the first year of Green Key. However, as the men's lyrics became increasingly risque, College administrators intervened in the competition in 1974 to ensure that it remained tasteful.
In 1978, a protest version of the Hums singing contest, called "The Real Hums," was held in front of Phi Delta Alpha fraternity and drew a crowd of 400 to 500 spectators. The official Hums competition that year, which occurred simultaneously, only attracted 200 to 300 viewers. Songs performed at the competition on Webster Avenue attacked the recently approved fraternity constitution, the College administration and coeducation at the College.
Past Green Key weekends have also featured performances by nationally-renowned musicians, such as the Glenn Miller Orchestra in 1960 and the Grateful Dead in 1978.
In recent decades, Green Key organizers instituted various new outdoor events. The "Spring Carnival" of 1989, for example, featured a petting zoo, tie-dyeing, a dunking booth of Deans of the College, free drinks, "Macintosh bashing" and "car smashing," according to a campus-distributed flyer.
Last year, the Green Key Society reinstated the ball for the first time in over four decades. This year, however, the society is opting to host a less formal "Green Key Bash" due to concerns over student attendance.
