Bill writes:
>So what do other schools do?  I know about RPI's famous waiting line, which
>has given rise to legends like the group of students who claimed first place
>in line by pitching a tent the day after the Engineers won the 1985 NCAA
>championship and camping out there for five or six months.  An excellent
>example of either spirit or desperation :-)
 
Neither...the story I heard was that right after the 1985 championship game,
while partying *heavily*, a certain fraternity (I forget which one but I have
pictures somewhere from the Poly) decided to start their own line for the next
season right then.  So they tromped down to the Union, and when passersby
asked what they were doing, they said they were in line for hockey tickets
for NEXT year.
 
It was all just a gag until somehow the word got out that the fraternity
was doing it for donations to a charity and people started donating money.
At that point, they decided they had to do it and so they stayed in line
all summer, with a big sign proclaiming that they were in line for donations
and a little wading pool to stay cool on hot days.  (I don't recall seeing
a tent.  I was out there a week after the championship on a recruiting trip
with a friend from HS, Steve Duncan, who ended up playing net for RPI, so
we did see the original "line" as well as the whole thing in the fall - the
line went around the Union something like 8 times and the morning of the
ticket sale, the team got up at 6 am and served breakfast to the students
in line.)
 
For all I know, the original intent was indeed to do it for charity, but
who knows.  This story is probably more believable to most people. :-)
 
 
- mike