Memory Lane: The Streak

The Mass Streak included streakers of all stripes: on foot, on bikes, on motorcycles and even riding a horse. (Image courstesy of Illini Media)

When 12,000 people showed up on the Quad one night in March 1974, you could have easily mistaken the gathering for an REO Speedwagon concert or a protest against President Nixon.

That is, until you saw all the naked people.

For those 12,000 revelers were there for one reason and one reason only: to witness the “Mass Streak,” an evening of lighthearted, nudist nonsense the likes of which the campus had never seen.

In the early months of 1974, streaking had become a fad across many college campuses, following national media coverage of streaking among fraternities.

The craze came to Illinois the first week of March, and within days grew into a campus-wide form of creative rebellion.

There were streakers of all stripes: on foot, on bikes, singing from rooftops and engaging in other youthful shenanigans, appearing everywhere from classrooms and dining halls to campus bars, ROTC awards ceremonies and even Marching Illini band rehearsals—all culminating in the Mass Streak on Friday, March 8.

The streaking craze included a nude parachutist landing near the Auditorium. (Image courtesy of UIAA)

The Mass Streak started with a pep rally, which was emphatically not the sort of pep rally you’d find at Homecoming, with naked skateboarders and a nude man sliding down a flagpole—he hurt himself—among its more salient features.

“It was a very inclusive and fun atmosphere,” recalls Louise Donahue, ’76 MEDIA. “A goofy diversion, whether you participated or just enjoyed the show.”

And enjoy the show they did. Those who attended the Mass Streak still recall the sense of camaraderie they felt—and the things they saw, which were forever burned into their brains.

For Steven Forney, ’78 ENG, it was “a girl riding a horse” like Lady Godiva.

For Bill Reedy, ’75 LAS, it was the streakers who tried to parachute onto the Quad. “I bet it was cold jumping from that airplane!” he says.

Deb Pawlak Barrett, ’77 LAS, recalls “a can-can line on the roof” of one of the Quad buildings as well as streakers in wheelchairs, while Bill Dreffein, ’75 BUS, recalls a friend and his girlfriend blazing through the Quad naked on his motorcycle. “They wore their helmets, of course!” he says, laughing.

But all that was prelude. Eventually, the pep rally was over, and the main event began, with the enormous crowd singing “Illinois Loyalty.”

Then, like a great flock of migratory birds, the streakers took off.

The Mass Streak was part of the 1974 streaking craze. (Image courtesy of Illini Media and UIAA)

According to Greg Miller, ’76 MEDIA, who covered the Mass Streak for The Daily Illini, more than 400 people ran from the Quad to Frat Park—totally nude, except for their gym shoes. “I stood in the middle of Daniel Street,” he says, “counting silently to myself as hundreds of screaming naked people ran around me. It was surreal.”

And it was about to get even more surreal.

Streaking soon became a phenomenon of such national proportions that comedian and singer-songwriter Ray Stevens even scored a #1 hit about it, “The Streak”—“the fastest thing on two feet.”

Streaking at high-profile events (such as the Oscars) became so popular that University administrators were justifiably concerned about streakers interrupting the Spring Commencement ceremony.

But by then, the streaking craze at Illinois was all but over.

“After a few days,” Miller says, “the fad just…faded away.”

Yet 50 years later, it lives on in the memories of the streakers themselves, and of the thousands of Illini who watched, laughed and cheered them on.