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Great College Pranks

A gallery of famous collegiate capers

By Stuart Fox Posted 8.11.08 at 5:28 pm 3 Comments

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Caltech
Museum of Hoaxes/Caltech
While the prototypical Caltech prank resembles a 1975 gag where some students used a computer to win a car from McDonald’s, the most famous pranks revolve around the Rose Bowl. Since no Caltech team will ever play in the Rose Bowl, the annual game has been a constant target. In 1984, Caltech students hacked into the Rose Bowl scoreboard to read “Caltech 31, MIT 9”. However, the nerdiest prank in Caltech history involved former student Bruce Montgomery inscribing Caltech fraternity jokes onto the Voyager spacecrafts, ensuring Caltech pranks will one day reach the farthest reaches of the galaxy.
At left, two of Caltech's infamous name-in-lights pranks. In 1961, 30 million Rose Bowl viewers were stunned when the Washington Huskies unwittingly began cheering the small, neighboring technical school. Ten years later, pulled a similar prank on the Hollywood sign.
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University of Wisconsin
jessanderson.org
While not as purely intellectual as the other schools on the list (they actually have good sports teams at Wisconsin), the U of W Madison is a legendary prank school. Under the title of a student government political party named “Pail and Shovel”, a group of Wisconsin students constructed a life sized replica of the head and right arm of the Statue of Liberty on the frozen lake by the school. The party claimed that they had shipped the real statue over from New York, but that it had fallen through the ice with only the arm and head tall enough to poke out. Unfortunately, everyone had seen them building the giant model, ruining the surprise but not diminishing the engineering effort.
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3 Comments

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FredNiell

08/15/08 at 8:14 am

Justin and I had a great time at the scavhunt at U of C. The reactor still lives on as a great legacy - I get asked about it over email at least once every 2-3 months. Glad you guys were able to dig up a good photo of us! :)

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jacubious

08/17/08 at 5:34 pm

You guys are totaling omitting the pranks done by the engineering department at UBC! Their Golden Gate bridge prank, among others, is famous! These are all good, but my local pride compels me to point out that UBC should be included.

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Truth

from Oshkosh, Wisconsin

08/29/08 at 6:00 pm

Ha, you have to love college spirit, ambition, and creativity (all while, usually, not hurting anyone).

Great College Pranks

Caltech

University of Wisconsin

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