One chapter of the S&T sesquicentennial history book will focus on pranks and scandals. As part of his research for that chapter, Larry Gragg, Curators’ Distinguished Teaching Professor emeritus of history and political science, asked you to share your stories. Here are just a couple of them:

My freshman year, several of my dorm friends and I had a water balloon fight outside our RA’s room.
She only came out to tell us to stop when she heard one explode on her door. Oh yeah, the balloons were water‑filled condoms. A year or two later, my roommates and I got really into interior decoration using items found around campus. Some of these items included “wet floor” signs from various buildings, traffic cones with Missouri S&T painted on them and orange construction fence. Prior to graduating, I returned all items except for a hot pink wet floor sign with a mustache painted on it that was taken from the electrical engineering building.

Becky Robinson, IST’16, Blue Springs, Mo.

One Halloween about 1982, some students of Del Day in the MRC (Materials Research Center) decided to honor his role in making specialty glasses in the space shuttle missions. So Heidi Rutz, CerE’85, MS CerE’88, donated her white Honda Civic coupe and the ‘crew’ set out to convert it to a shuttle craft to fly through Rolla and trick-or-treat (heavy on the treat) at the Days’ home. Heidi, Glenn Whichard, MS CerE’83, and I fabricated wings and a rudder with white cardboard and 2x4s. The propulsion unit was three metal ash tray cylinders taped together with a CO2 fire extinguisher in one, mounted out the back of the hatch. Top speed was 35 mph before the whole thing became unstable. Still searching for that photo. Never heard from safety about the empty fire extinguisher! Was there even a safety department back then?

Tom Wetteroth, CerE’79, MS CerE’83, Chandler, Ariz.