When I was at Caltech in the early 90s the general belief[1] seemed to be that we'd stolen the cannon from Harvey Mudd originally and the concept of MIT stealin

When I was at Caltech in the early 90s the general belief[1] seemed to be that we'd stolen the cannon from Harvey Mudd originally and the concept of MIT stealing it from the Flems[2] was hilarious. The Flems would be flustered, the Mudders would have to get it back from Massachusetts, and the rest of us would applaud and go back to setting things on fire, painting on the walls, and lock-picking. Inter-house rivalries were more of a running gag than an actual conflict - especially since there was heavy overlap between house memberships (you could and often did join more than one) - but it played into the continual pranking/stacking. [1] Short institutional memories confusing the issue further. [2] Fleming house members, basically stereotyped as Caltech's jocks at the time. I can't throw stones, I was a Mole and there were plenty of jokes about us, plus I almost dated a Flem.