The bridge over the Charles River that connects MIT to Boston is ironically
called the Harvard Bridge. As you cross the bridge, you will note that the
crosswalk has markers called "Smoots." During the early sixties,
some drunk kids rolled some poor guy by that name end over end one night.
After this ordeal, the bridge was determined to be 364.4 "Smoots" and
one ear. The drunk kids belonged to a local fraternity Lambda Chi Alpha.
Reality: Despite stories told on MIT campus tours, Smoot was not
rolled end to end. According to Oliver Reed Smoot, Jr., '62, "As all
who walked the bridge in those days will remember, it was difficult, especially
in the rain, sleet, snow, and fog of which Boston gets its share, to know how
much further you had to go to get to the Institute. So in October 1958, a
student devised the idea of marking off the bridge in pledge lengths. Scanning
the assembled pledge class, he determined that I had the short end of the stick.
"As with many pledge tasks, there was an easy way out if a little
ingenuity was exercised -- namely use a string. In any case, Pete, Gordon, Nate
and Bill agreed to help and we set off with the paint, chalk, etc.
Unfortunately, a brother in the class of '61 thought this task was so hilarious
that he accompanied us. With him there, we had no choice but to do the actual
measurements. I can tell you that even then I could not do the equivalent of 365
push-ups, so much of the way I was carried or dragged.
"Luckily for the five of us, we were cold sober; in any case, when an
MDC [Metropolitan District Commission] black van appeared at about the 300 mark,
we cut for the dark recesses of the Great Court and waited for them to leave."
