7 ms·

The day MIT won the Harvard-Yale game

150 points by dskhatri 8y ago

christophilus 8y ago
> MIT president Paul Gray said: "There is absolutely no truth to the rumor that I had anything to do with the planning or promoting of [the hack], but I wish there were." That’s probably my favorite bit. Then, the sad reality of the present day sinks in: > If anyone were to attempt the harmless type of stunt they pulled off -- let alone the one in 1948 -- it would likely be met with a prison sentence.
- jpmattia 8y ago
  MIT president Paul Gray asked Harvard President Derek Bok for the return of the apparatus, which was also a bit hilarious: ______________________ Dear Derek, Word has come to me that your campus police are holding some property which rightfully should be located in the MIT Museum. Can this be true? Surely you have little use for a makeshift device constructed from vacuum cleaner parts, points from 1967 Mustang, and a handful of marbles. We, however, being the sentimental sort, would take great care of indeed, we would enshrine--this symbolic highlight of the 1982 football season. Please give it back. Sincerely yours, Paul E. Gray https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1982/12/9/boks-mail-balloons-and-breakers-pbthe/ https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1982/12/9/boks-mail-ballo...
hprotagonist 8y ago
If you tried this, or any other famous MIT hack, at today's MIT, you would be in Big Person Trouble in a heartbeat. It's quite depressing.
- akhilcacharya 8y ago
  To be clear if you did any of this sort of stuff at any non-elite institution it would be even worse for you. The elites get a lot of lee-way that the rest of us don't.
  - phd514 8y ago
    Frankly, whatever "elite" was characterized by the MIT of the 20th century is the kind of elite that's good. There were far more kids with middle-class backgrounds at MIT than at your typical Ivy and they were there because they loved science and engineering. In general, they weren't the moneyed 1% or the politically-connected. That was generally reflected in the school's administration which was much less political and PC than at other universities. As such, "hacks" were treated in the spirit in which they were done as good-natured attempts to achieve the very difficult. As a notable example of that, the police car on the dome hack included detailed instructions for its disassembly and removal. Rumor has it that in the last decade or two, that spirit has been in decline at MIT. If so, that's truly sad.
    - akhilcacharya 8y ago
      They might not be part of the moneyed and politically connected elite but by their presence at MIT they are certainly part of the elite. Let me just say if someone did the dome hack at my alma mater 1) nobody would get the reference 2) the perpetrators would be expelled or criminally charged.
- jmgrosen 8y ago
  I’d have disagree. Have you seen Hackapult? http://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/by_year/2015/hackapult/ http://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/by_year/2015/hackapult/ There are fewer hacks nowadays, and they’re usually less ambitious, but I would argue it’s for reasons other than hostility from the Institute.
  - Q6T46nT668w6i3m 8y ago
    Totally. You can also see the small exhibit in the Stata cafeteria.
  - ita 8y ago
    It is because of institute hostility that there are fewer hacks. That hack in particular took multiple months of preparation and was took down by the institute in less than 1 hour; before anyone could really see it. Also the amount of security and possible consequences has increased drastically in the last 2 years; continuing the trend of the last 6 years.
    - jmgrosen 8y ago
      I don’t think that sort of hack would have been taken down any less quickly in the past. The only time dome hacks have lasted a while have been when they’re extremely tricky to take down. I have some further opinions about what you allude to at the end of your comment, but that should probably be taken offline.
      - sokoloff 8y ago
        R2D2 hack was left up for more than a day... http://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/by_year/1999/r2d2/ http://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/by_year/1999/r2d2/ Several Lobby 7 hacks were also left up for a while (though admittedly less obvious and dangerous perhaps than Great Dome hacks).
        hprotagonist 8y ago
        r2d2 also happened 19 years ago. I know people who were at MIT then. It was, by all accounts, a vastly different place.
- mavsman 8y ago
  In all honesty, it sounds like a dangerous prank for the players. It's funny since it turned out alright but I don't think they knew it would be completely safe. I don't know how structurally sound the surface was there but if I had a season-ending injury because I stepped on a balloon or because my leg fell through the grass then I'd be pretty upset about it.
vecter 8y ago
> But not before a call came from the dean at MIT. The fraternity was already on probation, so getting caught could have been problematic. > "I believe it was Bruce Sohn, who was the president [of the fraternity] at the time, who had the fateful call from the dean, who said, 'Did you guys do this?'" said Webster, who is in the process of attempting to turn the story into a feature-length movie. "And he had to think for a second. 'If I say yes, this could be the thing that has the straw on the camel's back and kicks us off campus forever. And if I say no, there might even be more trouble if they found out we did.' So he goes, 'Yes sir, we did.' > "And then there's a pause on the phone, and then the dean goes, 'OK, you're off probation.'" That's hilarious. Props to the dean for having a sense of humor.
beat 8y ago
I remember that! Made me want to go to a fancy tech school. Didn't get in to MIT or Caltech, tho.
ChuckMcM 8y ago
I love that story, and the one where during the summer MIT students would wear a black and white striped shirt, blow a whistle and then throw bird seed out on the field. Eventually training the local pigeon population to respond to this, the early scrimmages were apparently mobbed by pigeons.
- jonshariat 8y ago
  Please let there be a video of this too. Thats hilarious.
  - craftyguy 8y ago
    According to snopes, it's a legend that hasn't been confirmed. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/field-of-seeds/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/field-of-seeds/
    - andrewflnr 8y ago
      I want to believe! ...The internet being what it is, we ought to be able to find some eyewitnesses.
      - enriquto 8y ago
        The pigeons can be trained again!
- stouset 8y ago
  That is incredible.
- pavel_lishin 8y ago
  This seems like something that someone like Mythbusters ought to be able to try and recreate. (Or if I were to not date myself quite so precisely, maybe someone like Mark Rober, or the King of Random guy.)
rconti 8y ago
I like the fact that I can Google "30 feet in smoots" https://www.technologyreview.com/s/410360/smoots-legacy/ https://www.technologyreview.com/s/410360/smoots-legacy/
wama 8y ago
I liked the old hacks better than the modern-day data fabrication, sexual harassment, and financial schemes we see at elite schools like MIT. Somehow, tolerating hacks seemed less harmful than tolerating and covering up fraud and rape.
WalterBright 8y ago
My father was at MIT in 1948, and he'd regale me with stories about MIT pranks, especially the explosive wire one. MIT at the time was full of older men who were WW2 veterans on the GI Bill. They were skilled at handling explosives.
- jpmattia 8y ago
  > They were skilled at handling explosives. The reputation for explosive hacks at MIT go back to the 1800's. It used to be that students had to participate in marching practice. Some wag got the idea to put a layer on the floor of nitrogen triiodide, a mild contact explosive. So when it came time to bang your feet against the floor during the march...
  - WalterBright 8y ago
    The reason Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is not on campus is the locals had become concerned when one of their rocket engines exploded :-)
WalterBright 8y ago
Caltech's most famous prank is the Rose Bowl prank. The instructions for which cards the audience would hold up were altered so they would spell out CALTECH rather than the team name. It's the only time Caltech ever was at the Rose Bowl :-)
- jpmattia 8y ago
  Taking over the Rose Bowl scoreboard in 1984 also ranks up there. https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.trbimg.com%2Fimg-52bf764c%2Fturbine%2Fla-sp-rose-bowl-in-black-and-white-20131228-pi-002&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wildwestsports.com%2FDiscussion%2FBoard%2FFootball%2FPost%2FView%2F1325287%2Fcaltech-king-of-pranks&docid=xyAiFWiaL0Sj6M&tbnid=6nGkLq9-BdXl9M%3A&vet=10ahUKEwjMg-KZzOTeAhXXFzQIHUSmCTsQMwg8KAMwAw..i&w=2048&h=1112&bih=929&biw=1904&q=caltech%20mit%20rose%20bowl%20prank&ved=0ahUKEwjMg-KZzOTeAhXXFzQIHUSmCTsQMwg8KAMwAw&iact=mrc&uact=8 https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.trbimg...
- cgoecknerwald 8y ago
  Personally, I prefer the prank in which the Hollywood sign read 'Caltech.'[1] [1] http://articles.latimes.com/1987-05-19/local/me-1219_1_caltech-graduates http://articles.latimes.com/1987-05-19/local/me-1219_1_calte...
ggm 8y ago
Imperial College London, 1940s, the engineering students winched a car onto the roof. Apparently they hid sheer-legs down trousers (oxford bags were in again) and constructed a viable winch from short lengths, hidden ropes &c. I know the modern MIT prankery is pretty big, but I just wanted to say it does happen at other universities.
- seanhunter 8y ago
  +1. Students at my father's engineering class at another uni allegedly dismantled a lecturer's car and reassembled it inside their lecture hall.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
jrochkind1 8y ago
> "There have been some big changes between then and now," Douglas said. "Not just that 9/11 has happened, but if something like this happened today, they would probably evacuate the stadium. > "I would say anyone who was there absolutely remembers the event in the stadium. It didn't evoke the kind of panic that we are sometimes accustomed to seeing in news accounts or whatever, and so it makes me, in many ways, it makes me yearn for those days again." Me too, me too.
kchoudhu 8y ago
"All MIT men carry batteries for emergencies." Sounds about right. "One night, they ran into another group of pranksters from Brown University" Harvard, destined to be the butt of everyone's jokes.
hkmurakami 8y ago
Stories like this are what made a teenage me want to attend MIT (though alas it was not to be). And countless more will feel similarly on the coming years. I hope it lives on.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
ada1981 8y ago
Am I correct in reading that this was on the same day as “The Play”? They reference it in the article, but I thought that was Stanford.
starbeast 8y ago
>The way the device was designed, it would have been nearly impossible for anyone but them to activate it because it required a double male extension cord. I can think of one group of people who would have been able to activate it. I am guessing that they had surprisingly low electricity bills as well.
veddox 8y ago
Never been to MIT or any such place, but I know the story from the Jargon File: http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/meaning-of-hack.html http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/meaning-of-hack.html (It mentions the Caltech hack, too.) Interesting to read some more details in this article.

150 points by dskhatri 8y ago

> MIT president Paul Gray said: "There is absolutely no truth to the rumor that I had anything to do with the planning or promoting of [the hack], but I wish there were." That’s probably my favorite bit. Then, the sad reality of the present day sinks in: > If anyone were to attempt the harmless type of stunt they pulled off -- let alone the one in 1948 -- it would likely be met with a prison sentence.

jpmattia 8y ago
MIT president Paul Gray asked Harvard President Derek Bok for the return of the apparatus, which was also a bit hilarious: ______________________ Dear Derek, Word has come to me that your campus police are holding some property which rightfully should be located in the MIT Museum. Can this be true? Surely you have little use for a makeshift device constructed from vacuum cleaner parts, points from 1967 Mustang, and a handful of marbles. We, however, being the sentimental sort, would take great care of indeed, we would enshrine--this symbolic highlight of the 1982 football season. Please give it back. Sincerely yours, Paul E. Gray https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1982/12/9/boks-mail-balloons-and-breakers-pbthe/ https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1982/12/9/boks-mail-ballo...

hprotagonist 8y ago

If you tried this, or any other famous MIT hack, at today's MIT, you would be in Big Person Trouble in a heartbeat. It's quite depressing.

akhilcacharya 8y ago
To be clear if you did any of this sort of stuff at any non-elite institution it would be even worse for you. The elites get a lot of lee-way that the rest of us don't.
- phd514 8y ago
  Frankly, whatever "elite" was characterized by the MIT of the 20th century is the kind of elite that's good. There were far more kids with middle-class backgrounds at MIT than at your typical Ivy and they were there because they loved science and engineering. In general, they weren't the moneyed 1% or the politically-connected. That was generally reflected in the school's administration which was much less political and PC than at other universities. As such, "hacks" were treated in the spirit in which they were done as good-natured attempts to achieve the very difficult. As a notable example of that, the police car on the dome hack included detailed instructions for its disassembly and removal. Rumor has it that in the last decade or two, that spirit has been in decline at MIT. If so, that's truly sad.
  - akhilcacharya 8y ago
    They might not be part of the moneyed and politically connected elite but by their presence at MIT they are certainly part of the elite. Let me just say if someone did the dome hack at my alma mater 1) nobody would get the reference 2) the perpetrators would be expelled or criminally charged.
jmgrosen 8y ago
I’d have disagree. Have you seen Hackapult? http://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/by_year/2015/hackapult/ http://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/by_year/2015/hackapult/ There are fewer hacks nowadays, and they’re usually less ambitious, but I would argue it’s for reasons other than hostility from the Institute.
- Q6T46nT668w6i3m 8y ago
  Totally. You can also see the small exhibit in the Stata cafeteria.
- ita 8y ago
  It is because of institute hostility that there are fewer hacks. That hack in particular took multiple months of preparation and was took down by the institute in less than 1 hour; before anyone could really see it. Also the amount of security and possible consequences has increased drastically in the last 2 years; continuing the trend of the last 6 years.
  - jmgrosen 8y ago
    I don’t think that sort of hack would have been taken down any less quickly in the past. The only time dome hacks have lasted a while have been when they’re extremely tricky to take down. I have some further opinions about what you allude to at the end of your comment, but that should probably be taken offline.
    - sokoloff 8y ago
      R2D2 hack was left up for more than a day... http://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/by_year/1999/r2d2/ http://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/by_year/1999/r2d2/ Several Lobby 7 hacks were also left up for a while (though admittedly less obvious and dangerous perhaps than Great Dome hacks).
      - hprotagonist 8y ago
        r2d2 also happened 19 years ago. I know people who were at MIT then. It was, by all accounts, a vastly different place.
mavsman 8y ago
In all honesty, it sounds like a dangerous prank for the players. It's funny since it turned out alright but I don't think they knew it would be completely safe. I don't know how structurally sound the surface was there but if I had a season-ending injury because I stepped on a balloon or because my leg fell through the grass then I'd be pretty upset about it.

vecter 8y ago

> But not before a call came from the dean at MIT. The fraternity was already on probation, so getting caught could have been problematic. > "I believe it was Bruce Sohn, who was the president [of the fraternity] at the time, who had the fateful call from the dean, who said, 'Did you guys do this?'" said Webster, who is in the process of attempting to turn the story into a feature-length movie. "And he had to think for a second. 'If I say yes, this could be the thing that has the straw on the camel's back and kicks us off campus forever. And if I say no, there might even be more trouble if they found out we did.' So he goes, 'Yes sir, we did.' > "And then there's a pause on the phone, and then the dean goes, 'OK, you're off probation.'" That's hilarious. Props to the dean for having a sense of humor.

beat 8y ago

I remember that! Made me want to go to a fancy tech school. Didn't get in to MIT or Caltech, tho.

ChuckMcM 8y ago

I love that story, and the one where during the summer MIT students would wear a black and white striped shirt, blow a whistle and then throw bird seed out on the field. Eventually training the local pigeon population to respond to this, the early scrimmages were apparently mobbed by pigeons.

jonshariat 8y ago
Please let there be a video of this too. Thats hilarious.
- craftyguy 8y ago
  According to snopes, it's a legend that hasn't been confirmed. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/field-of-seeds/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/field-of-seeds/
  - andrewflnr 8y ago
    I want to believe! ...The internet being what it is, we ought to be able to find some eyewitnesses.
    - enriquto 8y ago
      The pigeons can be trained again!
stouset 8y ago
That is incredible.
pavel_lishin 8y ago
This seems like something that someone like Mythbusters ought to be able to try and recreate. (Or if I were to not date myself quite so precisely, maybe someone like Mark Rober, or the King of Random guy.)

rconti 8y ago

I like the fact that I can Google "30 feet in smoots" https://www.technologyreview.com/s/410360/smoots-legacy/ https://www.technologyreview.com/s/410360/smoots-legacy/

wama 8y ago

I liked the old hacks better than the modern-day data fabrication, sexual harassment, and financial schemes we see at elite schools like MIT. Somehow, tolerating hacks seemed less harmful than tolerating and covering up fraud and rape.

WalterBright 8y ago

My father was at MIT in 1948, and he'd regale me with stories about MIT pranks, especially the explosive wire one. MIT at the time was full of older men who were WW2 veterans on the GI Bill. They were skilled at handling explosives.

jpmattia 8y ago
> They were skilled at handling explosives. The reputation for explosive hacks at MIT go back to the 1800's. It used to be that students had to participate in marching practice. Some wag got the idea to put a layer on the floor of nitrogen triiodide, a mild contact explosive. So when it came time to bang your feet against the floor during the march...
- WalterBright 8y ago
  The reason Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is not on campus is the locals had become concerned when one of their rocket engines exploded :-)

WalterBright 8y ago

Caltech's most famous prank is the Rose Bowl prank. The instructions for which cards the audience would hold up were altered so they would spell out CALTECH rather than the team name. It's the only time Caltech ever was at the Rose Bowl :-)

jpmattia 8y ago
Taking over the Rose Bowl scoreboard in 1984 also ranks up there. https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.trbimg.com%2Fimg-52bf764c%2Fturbine%2Fla-sp-rose-bowl-in-black-and-white-20131228-pi-002&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wildwestsports.com%2FDiscussion%2FBoard%2FFootball%2FPost%2FView%2F1325287%2Fcaltech-king-of-pranks&docid=xyAiFWiaL0Sj6M&tbnid=6nGkLq9-BdXl9M%3A&vet=10ahUKEwjMg-KZzOTeAhXXFzQIHUSmCTsQMwg8KAMwAw..i&w=2048&h=1112&bih=929&biw=1904&q=caltech%20mit%20rose%20bowl%20prank&ved=0ahUKEwjMg-KZzOTeAhXXFzQIHUSmCTsQMwg8KAMwAw&iact=mrc&uact=8 https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.trbimg...
cgoecknerwald 8y ago
Personally, I prefer the prank in which the Hollywood sign read 'Caltech.'[1] [1] http://articles.latimes.com/1987-05-19/local/me-1219_1_caltech-graduates http://articles.latimes.com/1987-05-19/local/me-1219_1_calte...

ggm 8y ago

Imperial College London, 1940s, the engineering students winched a car onto the roof. Apparently they hid sheer-legs down trousers (oxford bags were in again) and constructed a viable winch from short lengths, hidden ropes &c. I know the modern MIT prankery is pretty big, but I just wanted to say it does happen at other universities.

seanhunter 8y ago
+1. Students at my father's engineering class at another uni allegedly dismantled a lecturer's car and reassembled it inside their lecture hall.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

jrochkind1 8y ago

> "There have been some big changes between then and now," Douglas said. "Not just that 9/11 has happened, but if something like this happened today, they would probably evacuate the stadium. > "I would say anyone who was there absolutely remembers the event in the stadium. It didn't evoke the kind of panic that we are sometimes accustomed to seeing in news accounts or whatever, and so it makes me, in many ways, it makes me yearn for those days again." Me too, me too.

kchoudhu 8y ago

"All MIT men carry batteries for emergencies." Sounds about right. "One night, they ran into another group of pranksters from Brown University" Harvard, destined to be the butt of everyone's jokes.

hkmurakami 8y ago

Stories like this are what made a teenage me want to attend MIT (though alas it was not to be). And countless more will feel similarly on the coming years. I hope it lives on.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

ada1981 8y ago

Am I correct in reading that this was on the same day as “The Play”? They reference it in the article, but I thought that was Stanford.

starbeast 8y ago

>The way the device was designed, it would have been nearly impossible for anyone but them to activate it because it required a double male extension cord. I can think of one group of people who would have been able to activate it. I am guessing that they had surprisingly low electricity bills as well.

veddox 8y ago

Never been to MIT or any such place, but I know the story from the Jargon File: http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/meaning-of-hack.html http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/meaning-of-hack.html (It mentions the Caltech hack, too.) Interesting to read some more details in this article.