A Streak to Remember

Today's record breaking warm weather reminded me of one of the more crazy times I spent at the University of Tennessee.

It was a three day stretch in early March 1974. Like today - it was unseasonably warm and after months of cold, dreary weather, the warm stretch of days was a great break from the monotony of winter and studying.

It was so warm - especially at night -- that it seemed the natural thing to go outside and enjoy ourselves. And boy did we ever.

The Knoxville Police Department helped out by shutting down Cumberland Avenue from around 21st street to 17th street. The only traffic on the strip those 3 nights were people. And the occasional car filled with -- naked people.

Streaking had reached Knoxville. And it turned Cumberland Avenue into a spontaneous party.

Those of you old enough to remember streaking know it was a fad that swept the country. It inspired a song by Ray Stevens.

Even the Oscar Awards that year had an unscheduled streaker...prompting presenter David Niven to quip: "Just think: the only laugh that man will probably ever get is for stripping and showing off his shortcomings."

But it was on college campuses that streaking reached epidemic proportions. So much, that Time Magazine ran a spread on the craziness..

Here's a part of an article from its March 18, 1974 edition:

"At Stanford University, a fraternity man entertaining a coed in his room responded to a knock at the door and was confronted by seven nude males, each carrying a golf bag. "May we play through?" asked one. In Knoxville, Tenn., vowing that they would not be "outstripped by any state," scores of University of Tennessee students raced nude down Cumberland Avenue, even taking to the roofs to sit atop a second-story billboard and astride an ornamental bull."

I remember that billboard and all the guys lined up on it. As I recall it - they mooned the crowd more than once. I remember the bull too and the couple on it. But we won't get into too many details about that.

Knoxville and UT students embraced streaking so much that America's most trusted man, then CBS anchor Walter Cronkite tagged Knoxville with a dubious distinction. It's even on the City of Knoxville website:

In 1974 Walter Cronkite designated Knoxville as the "Streaking Capital of the World." It was in the spring of that year that an estimated 5,000 people on Cumberland Avenue took their clothes off... stripping on the "strip".

Streaking was fun. It was silly. It was a great way to take our minds off some serious stuff.

The war in Viet Nam was winding down, but young people were still dying. Richard Nixon was President and in the midst of scandal. We all needed a break.

Thank goodness for streaking.