At one time or another, nearly every Miner has pulled an all-nighter. Maybe you stayed up all night cramming for a calculus test. Maybe you road-tripped across the country with your fraternity or sorority pledge class. Maybe you just hung out with friends having a good time. We asked about your memorable all-nighter. Here is what you told us.

In early March 1973, I was carving a snake head and body from a large oak limb to be mounted on Sigma Tau Gamma’s entry in the St. Pat’s cudgel contest. About 1 a.m. I sliced my left index finger to the bone, made my way to the infirmary and woke the night nurse. When she offered to sew it up I asked whether I would still be able to bend it for the remainder of the evening. I explained “I have a carving to finish, so our cudgel will win.” Her answer being “No,” I asked her to just disinfect it and wrap it up. I returned to the house and continued carving until dawn, making sure the occasional blood did not ruin the carving. I still have the snake head carving; it matches the snake on the winning 1973 St. Pat’s sweatshirt design (mine, also). Our cudgel did win the 1973 competition, carried by Mark “Tiny” Middendorf, GGph’74.

Jim Martin, AE’75
Raytown, Mo.

I had to pass every final exam to graduate in January 1965. I spent nine all-nighters studying in the Kappa Alpha dining room. The study table stood in front of a coat closet, and for years I was known as “Keeper of the Closet.”

Jay W. Alford, MetE’65
Miller, Mo.

Math came easy for me, and the logic behind it easily kept me awake during all-night sessions. (This may explain why after 50 years, I’m still a working structural engineer.) But if I had a reading assignment for literature or history, I ran into difficulty. I would hold my right arm vertical on the desk with a pen in my hand, and if I dozed off, I would drop the pen and wake myself up. I would then pick up the pen and start the process all over again, pushing myself through the reading assignment.

Dale Mueller, EE’62
St. Louis

It was St. Pat’s 1948. We started a bridge game on the Sigma Nu front porch at about 10 p.m. It was a warm evening with no wind, and we had a good time. All of a sudden, we noticed the sun coming up. We had spent the whole night without ever getting tired. I still think about it with good memories.

Jim Fisher, CE’48
Lakewood, Colo.

I remember the time I spent in the Kelly Hall basement laundry room cramming for some long-forgotten test. I didn’t want to disturb my roommate with the light and me talking to myself. When I finally gave up, I had just over an hour to sleep. I set two alarm clocks to make certain I did not oversleep. I woke up AFTER the second one went off — because it fell on me when I tried to turn it off while I was still in my sleepy grogginess.

Willard Sudduth, CE’66
Decatur, Ill.