News of The Day: Streak to Fame

College sports are big business. I’m not a fan but I do know a little bit about college football. When you live in Florida, the first question you’re usually asked by a stranger is, “Where are you from?” Florida is what I like to call a squatter state. People come here from all over the world and end up staying. There’s a saying, “Nobody ever comes from Florida. They just migrate.”

When I’m asked that question, “Where you from?” my answer is, “I grew in Nebraska.” As I wrote my first novel, Living with the Gray Tones, I used my home state as a backdrop for the mystery.

Even before I moved away, I can’t say I was a big fan of college ball. I always considered myself a bit of a hippie. Maintaining the hippie lifestyle meant that I cast off all types of conformity. If you’re a hippie teenager, planted in the middle of a state known for football, you tend to reject all things Cornhusker. Even today, I embrace things out of the norm. When I read an article about an unusual form of college sport, I knew that was going to be my topic for today. Hamilton College, located in upstate New York, has a Varsity Streaking Team.

Oh, yes, they call it the streak. Look at it, look at it. Streaking has its roots in the 1970’s, although running around without your clothes on certainly started way before that. In fact, colleges have had streakers since as early as 1804.

One well-known streaker, Robert Opel, ran naked behind a very calm David Niven at the Academy Awards in 1974. David’s response was almost as memorable as the event itself. “Isn’t it fascinating to think that probably the only laugh that man will ever get in his life is by stripping off and showing his shortcomings?”

Hamilton College has taken streaking to a completely new level by creating a Varsity team. You won’t see them represented in the world Olympics but you might just see them on the big screen. This group has introduced their documentary, Streak to Win, into the film festival circuit. They unveiled their movie at the New York Television Film festival last week by, of course, streaking through the audience.

As I was doing research to write this column, I asked, Why would someone choose to join a varsity streaking team?” It turns out the answer is a simple one. They like it. It’s not boring. I suppose that’s true. It does tend to get the entire team arrested, that’s certainly not boring. I don’t know if I’m interested in seeing Streak to Win but I give the students their props for ingenuity. I hope the movie does well. It’s not the worst idea I’ve ever heard.

So given my opening couple of paragraphs, you might be asking yourself if I was a college streaker. Hippy, streaker, they go hand in hand, right? I don’t think so but, truthfully, I can’t be sure. I was a college drinker so … but I know I didn’t make varsity.

Until next time … Peace
Darla