From famed urinals to a dinner involving a boar head on a platter, Nebraska colleges are not lacking for interesting traditions!
One of the best parts about enrolling in a university or college is taking part in the campus culture. Whether you enjoy clubs, sports, or just hanging out on the lawn in front of the academic buildings, college life has something for every student.
Nebraska colleges are teeming with exciting campus life—and also plenty of tradition to partake in. Some traditions are perfectly logical and, dare we say, wholesome, such as fans at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) running through the football stadium tunnel for the first home game of the year. Other traditions are a little more, well, untraditional.
Take a look through some of these quirky Nebraska college and university traditions that are anything but traditional.
1. The naked man run
Standing in the middle of Concordia University Nebraska’s campus square is the Son of Man, Be Free statue. The abstract statue depicts a man in several pieces reaching for the sky, and is said to have a religious theme. Students often adorn it with seasonal attire as a prank, such as with hats or scarves.
But come winter, students have a chilly tradition with the statue that leaves them out in the cold—literally. Every year, on the first snowfall, there is an open invitation for students to meet just before midnight to partake in what’s fondly called “The Naked Man Run.” I could not find any evidence of the run actually being performed naked, but I think we could all assume that a run sans clothing most likely took place in the past.
Today, however, when the clock hits midnight, runners are not naked, but do wear the most minimal of clothing to complete their run. At the stroke of midnight, they sprint to the statue, make two laps around it, then drop to the ground to make no fewer than three snow angels before running back to the campus (indoor) lounge. Once the run is done, winter has begun!
2. Food-snatching squirrel mascots
While all colleges have an official mascot, students at Creighton University have also adopted the campus squirrels as their unofficial mascot. Dubbed the “Mascots on the Mall,” Creighton students have something of a love-hate relationship with the food-snatching campus squirrels that dates back decades.
Some students simply enjoy the familiar presence of the squirrels on campus. Some students have tried to trap the squirrels. Others find enjoyment out of feeding them. And during a dark period in the 80s, some even shared their favorite squirrel recipes.
The squirrels were even so rampant on campus that they reportedly took over a building so completely that it ended up getting demolished in the 90s. Obviously, it’s not the same squirrels students will see on campus, but the tradition of dubbing the furry-tailed friends you’ll see around as you walk to class as local mascots continues.
3. A giant mammoth’s foot as a good luck charm
Honestly, who among us hasn’t wished to high-five a mammoth’s foot for good luck? Upon entering the campus grounds, students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) touch the foot of “Archie,” a giant bronze mammoth who sits near Memorial Stadium and Morrill Hall.
Inside, visitors will find the real Archie, the largest mammoth fossil on display. Archie’s full name is Archidiskidon, as he was one of the largest mammoth breeds that ever roamed the earth.
As a result of volcanic ash coating the area completely and suddenly, Nebraska is a state rich in fossils from the prehistoric era. The mammoth is Nebraska’s official state fossil, with versions found in nearly every county in the state. National Geographic even dubbed one of the state’s fossil parks the “Pompeii” of prehistoric animals, because it is a literal bed of fossils, including mammoths.
4. A literal roast of a dinner
Hastings College has a tradition that, at first glance, seems very sweet. Near the conclusion of the fall semester, students gather for the annual Boar’s Head Dinner. First, they kick off the evening’s festivities by singing Christmas music while walking into the dining hall. Then, the boar’s head is brought in on a platter, a tradition that marks the start of the dinner. (Warning: the image is um, more than I imagined).
If they still have an appetite after accompanying the boar’s head in, the students enter a festively decorated, candlelit hall for a formal, sit-down dinner. And the quirky test? The dinner is served entirely by the very same faculty who will be administering their finals only a few days later. Sounds lovely, right? It is—until the students turn on their dinner servers and the evening turns into a different kind of roast, as they take turns “roasting” the faculty, all in good fun, of course.
5. The trash can celebration
In 2024, University of Nebraska Omaha (UNO) assistant men’s basketball coach Kyan Brown tried a strange tactic to motivate his team before a big game: He kicked the h-e-double-hockey-sticks out of an unsuspecting trash can in the corner of the locker room. Along with a few kicks, Brown also made the unusual vow to come back to finish the job if the team won.
His spontaneous act of aggression worked, motivating the team to victory, so the team held Brown to his promise. He once again unleashed on the trash can and, in the process, unknowingly started a tradition. After every subsequent victory, a team member would meet him, trash can in hand, for him to do his thing. And the tradition only grew from there.
Today, the Trash Can Tradition has grown so large that the school even ran a promotion for fans to bring in trash can containers to eat popcorn in for home games, and the Alumni Association encourages people to upload their own Trash Can Celebration videos.
6. A concrete letter on a hillside
Chadron State College features a prominent concrete ‘C’ atop the campus hillside. The hill overlooks Main Street downtown, making it a popular and scenic spot to take in the views. Historically, Chadron students would paint the giant ‘C’ to kick off the new school year.
The C symbol is extra beloved to students and the community because it survived a devastating wildfire in 2006. Today, instead of painting the concrete letter, students will often hike up the hill, dubbed C-Hill, to take in the view or watch the sunset or sunrise—there is even talk of students dragging up couches for an extra-comfortable seat!
7. Cleaning up (for fun)
Nebraska’s first college, Peru State College, continues a long-held tradition of engaging college students, especially the college’s student athletes and their coaches, in a community-wide spring clean-up day.
The students perform tasks such as cleaning up trash, planting flowers, and cleaning debris from the downtown areas. In 2024 alone, the volunteers donated 750 man- and woman-hours, all in the name of cleaning.
8. A President who cancels classes on a whim
Every year, Doane University hosts a “Stop Day,” a tradition dating back to 1909, when students would ditch classes for a day of fun and games around May. That May tradition evolved into a school-sponsored May Day, meant to cut down on students ditching classes.
Today, the President honors the tradition by announcing a surprise “Stop Day” every year when classes and activities are spontaneously canceled, and students are invited to participate in campus fun like barbeques, outdoor music, and field games instead. The first official Stop Day happened in 1947 and is still going strong. Students receive a campus-wide alert when Stop Day is announced.
9. A Halloween party named after urinals
Another tradition out of UNL may just be the strangest one yet, as it involves a Halloween party being named after a urinal. Yes, really. Halloween is apparently a really big deal at UNL, and every year, the students throw a party called Hinsdale around Halloween.
However, Hinsdale did not get its name because it shares the same first letter with Halloween—instead, it derives its moniker from the hallowed and historic Hinsdale urinals of the early 1900s on the school’s grounds. In their day, Hinsdale urinals were considered top-of-the-line, luxurious, and elegant, and are now so rare that they are prized. Only one bar in New York City still has them, and the bar is famed for its urinals. Bon Appetit magazine even dubbed Hinsdales as the “Cadillacs” of urinals.
The oldest and largest Hinsdales west of the Mississippi River sit in the Architecture Hall of UNL’s campus, so somewhere along the way, it became a tradition to host a Halloween party dubbed the Hinsdale in honor of the famed urinals. Why and how an old urinal, no matter how fancy, is associated with a Halloween party is not exactly clear, but tradition is tradition.
