After years, relays return

by Lola Garcia

Oyarzabal organizes a return to an old tradition, plus a bit of cash and minus a bit of booze

The first Grinnell Relays were planned within one muggy April day in 1973. The first event was done as a feel-good break following years of springtime anti-Vietnam protests.

Relays became an annual Grinnell tradition until 1987, when the tradition died out.

Wayne Moyer, Political Science, was fresh from Yale graduate school at the time, and organized the event with two students. The idea was based on a similar event held at Yale that he described as “a Sunday school picnic with beer.”

This weekend, the Relays Committee, under the direction of SGA President Alejandro Oyarzabal ’04, will revive the spring custom in full force: as a campus-wide event spanning three days and carrying a price tag of more than $10,000.

Oyarzabal’s attempts at revival started early in the semester. He, along with several students groups, were trying to bring a spring carnival for late April. “I just thought the two would fit really well together,” he said.

Oyarzabal also talked it over with Moyer, his advisor. “[Moyer] always was enthusiastic when he talked about it,” said Oyarzabal.

This year’s event will start Friday night with the annual Titular Head film festival. Saturday will begin with dorm barbecues, and at 2 p.m. Moyer will commence the opening ceremonies and President Osgood will light the ceremonial toilet.

The games will begin. But after the original Relays were taken off the schedule, many believed it was because the celebration had become, in Oyarzabal’s words, “a drunkfest.” There will be added pressure to keep excessive drinking under control.

One approach Oyarzabal is taking is very non-traditional. The kegs on Mac Field will be filled with the non-alcoholic Odoul’s, and only cans of Odouls will be distributed outside.

“We will still have beer-oriented events,” Oyarzabal said, “We’ll just be using non-alcoholic beer.” He also noted that there would be drinking going on elsewhere, including dorm barbecues and team “prep time.” “We’re allowing people to drink and have fun,” he said.

Sunday will also be set aside as a non-drinking day. The second half of the celebration will be a more family-oriented day.

Student groups will host carnival tables, and Mac Field will host several inflatable games.

Campus bands will also play throughout the day, and psychedelic soul-pop group Maktub will headline the schedule during Sunday’s free all-campus picnic.

If the weather remains cooperative, a representative from Iowa Renewable Energy will set a stage run by solar power.

This weekend’s races will be a far cry from the first event in 1973.

The first event involved two kegs of beer and held opening ceremonies in the Pub under Quad dining hall (now home to Bob’s Underground).

Opening ceremonies were followed by the familiar Titular Head festival, which was then a series of short plays that in later years became notoriously lewd in their execution.

Moyer described the actual relays as “all sorts of goofy events… that were truly anti-competitive.” After awards were given the campus gathered for a picnic supper and Saturday night party.

As the years passed the event gained new events and evolved into a larger spectacle. New additions included the Edgar Allan Poe Film Festival, and a parade—beginning at Main Hall, and featuring a kazoo marching band.

While the traditions changed, the spirit remained constant. It remained a time, as Moyer said, “for students… to relax and laugh at each other.”

However, in 1988, after the drinking age in Iowa was raised, Grinnell Relays was absent that spring.

A revival was attempted in 1996. The organizers tried to create a Relays event that complied with the new, stricter alcohol policy. The committee tried hard to curb the drinking that had made past relays so out of control.

“We were successful,” said Moyer, “maybe too successful.” The event was less popular, and Relays lapsed into another hiatus.

This year, drinking will play the same role in Oyarzabal’s revamped relays, albeit under a more restrictive alcohol policy.

“The people who are running this are mostly SGA,” said Oyarzabal, “They are most familiar with the alcohol policy.”