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The Descent of Spring Breakers
• web photo
A history of Spring Break and its migration south ELISE KONERZA
assistant news editor
Spring Break can be traced all the way back to Ancient Greeks and Romans celebrating the arrival of spring in tandem with Dionysus or Bacchus – the Greek and Roman gods of wine. In actuality, Spring Break traces back to 1936 when Colgate University swimming coach, Sam Ingram, brought his team down to train in the first Olympic sized pool, Casino Pool, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. This began the tradition of students traveling to Florida and other southern states for Spring Break. This tradition kept through the swinging ’60s as resort
inside: Where To Worship........................4 Voices.............................................6 Sports.............................................9 Variety..........................................12 Classifieds...................................15
and hotel owners saw this as a marketing opportunity. Spring Break was first highlighted in a Time Magazine article in 1959. The article titled, “Beer & the Beach” began to envision alcohol as a customary ritual of spring breakers. “It’s not that we drink so much, it’s that we drink all the time,” one 1959 spring break attendee said. The ’70s produced a much raunchier idea of Spring Break. With PDA and promiscuous behavior on the rise, dangerous behavior was rationalized and encouraged by young Spring Breakers.“Balcony diving” became a regular way of getting from room to room. According to Time Maga-
zine, balcony diving can be described as, “Negotiating one’s way from balcony to balcony to get to other f loors or rooms, a practice typically performed in a drunken stupor and thus madly dangerous.” Hotel, motel and resort owners began to question why they invited such unruly guests to their quarters. By 1985, 370,000 students f locked to Fort Lauderdale or “Fort Liquordale.” As if the Spring Break wasn’t getting enough media attention, Tom Cruise and Shelley Long starred in a film titled, “Spring Break.” By this time, Florida’s public had enough. Strict public drinking laws began
to be enforced and the fun in the sun came to a yielding halt. Mayor Robert Dressler even went as far as making an appearance on ABC’s Good Morning America to tell students they had outworn their welcome. Spring Breakers pushed farther south on the map in pursuit of hotter sun and lower drinking ages, resulting in out of the country travel. In 1986 MTV launched its first Spring Break special in Daytona Beach, Fla. The program continues to air, reinforcing Spring Break’s sleazy image of bingedrinking and promiscuous sexual behaviors. Questions began to break for young
women in correlation with pre-break “anorexic challenges.” Universities took to the Spring Break phenomena to aid students in safe travels with “safe break bags” which included sunscreen, condoms and a sexual-assault manual. Joe Francis, the man behind the “Girls Gone Wild” series began to make videos of topless co-eds that later resulted in a civil suit for videotaping of underage girls. The student discount travel agency, STA travel, estimated an average spring breaker spends about $1,100 for a seven-night trip down south they probably won’t remember.
CAN BOBBY V BRING THE RED SOX BACK TO THE WORLD SERIES? - PAGE 9