Class News

Trumbull Beer 'N Bike Races 1961 - 1963

W. M. "Bam" Alling provided three programs from the storied Trumbull Beer 'N Bike Races, dating from our undergraduate days. Click on the covers below to download each program.

The Race dates from 1952 when a senior bet that he could ride from Yale to Vassar. That innocent bet led to a race involving twelve teams of riders. Somehow beer became involved (one wonders how) and the Race was a great success, covered by Life Magazine and all the newspapers.

Vassar students greeted a team of costumed Yale men
who had just competed in the first Trumbull Beer and Bike Race in 1952

It became an annual affair until it was banned by Vassar after the 1957 running, leading to the change of venue to Connecticut College, apparently less fastidious. The subsequent history can be read in the programs.

Unfortunately, the annual Race ended so long ago that it carries no meaning for today's students. It suffered the usual life cycle of undergraduate frivolity:

1. Gained popularity;
2. Got out of control due to excessive drunken behavior;
3. Got canceled by the administration.

The annual admonishment in the program to "refrain from doing such things as will infuriate the authorities" ultimately fell on deaf ears. But the memories live on, as do the programs.

Classmates whose names and pictures can be found in the programs include (alphabetically) Al Adams, Bam Alling, Dan Berman, Bruce Brown, Andy Combe, Harvey Geiger, Lyn Hinojosa, Bill Kridel, Bob Kuehn, Bill Lear, Sam Low, Owen O'Donnell, Ron Parlato, Dave Ritchey, Dave Sandor, Bill Schultz, Joe Webster, John Wilbur, and Dave Woodward. As a sample, see the 1961 "Do Or Die-A-Frams" below (left to right, Parlato, Ritchey, Low, Webster, Brown).