A six-decade tradition continues at the University of Michigan, where dozens of friendly combatants flung wads of snow at each other Wednesday night on the Diag at the center of campus.
A minute and a half of the action is posted by a bystander who was "commuting home on my bike from work at the hospital," he says on Reddit's Ann Arbor forum. "Pretty fun to see everyone out and enjoying the weather!" (Click at bottom right corner to unmute sound.)
His post earns nearly 500 upvotes in 18 hours, along with fond reminiscences:
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"Have fun. Enjoy these moments. I'm 37 now and find myself thinking back to my days in A2 from '05-'09."
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"I miss this whimsical shit."
Though it may seem spontaneous, this frisky frivolity has a heritage with long roots, as a 2010 graduate described in Michigan Alumnus magazine just over a year ago:
In March 1959, an article in The Michigan Daily documented a new activity: two rival residence halls pelting each other in the middle of the night with nature's icy bounty. The warring factions? South Quad, which opened in 1951 across East Madison Street from West Quad, which had opened a dozen years earlier.
Though it became an informal annual tradition, The Daily reported on the big battle at least three times, giving it a firm place in U-M history.
Hat tip to Ann Arbor News education reporter Samuel Dodge, who covered the video first.
