Stories

This is the story of Buster H., now known as the Buster H. Beach Run.

Our pledge class was larger (31) than the active body (23). We were so large, that the actives had to always use a signup sheet to be sure they had everyone. What started as a sign-up joke has lasted more than a ¼ of a century and is still being used today.

I believe our pledge captain, Ken McCallick was the first to start the joke.  At the first, or one of the first signup sheets, Ken wrote down Buster Hymen as a joke. Since Ken was at the front of the line as our captain, everyone else got to see the name and as quietly as possible, giggled as the signup sheet came around.

At the next meeting, someone else wrote Buster’s name down to keep the joke going. At the following meeting, someone else kept the joke alive. By now we had to start learning to say our pledge group last names – all 32 of them now.

“Brant, Brown, Chang, Diemer, Dixon, Dodge, Fitzpatrick, Frym, Hayes, Hymen, etc.”

Since we were so large, and none of the actives could remember all 32 of us, it was easy to conceal Buster. After a few more meetings, someone would vouch for Buster not being there.  Examples were he had to study for class or his mom needed a ride to the doctor’s office. We never gave an example that the actives couldn’t swallow.

Soon, our story of Buster was as much a staged set up as the good-guy bad-guy set up by the actives.  We’d get together 10 minutes before the next pledge function or meeting and be sure a different pledge had a different story about why Buster couldn’t be at the function.

A few more weeks went past and the actives were getting pretty suspicious. We were running out of excuses and the actives were running out of patience. We found out later that we did have half of them actually believing our hoax.

The active body finally brought the hoax to an end and demanded to see Buster in person the following Monday night or Buster would be cut from the pledge class. The weekend gave us time to come up with the grand finale for the hoax.

Anthony Zolezzi’s parents owned a tuna fishing company. That weekend, Anthony and Jim Hudson went down to his family’s business and came back with a four-foot, 100-pound, stinking dead tuna.

We notified the actives that we’d meet them in front of Foley pond with Buster. We placed Buster in the pond and waited for the actives.

When the actives arrived, we told them that Buster couldn’t handle the news of not being part of the pledge class and had committed suicide by drowning in Foley pond. We had told the actives that it was Buster’s last wishes to be buried on the bluff. We thought we had the upper hand in the muse, Jim Trousil picked Buster up, and in grand procession, started carrying Buster to the bluff behind the church. 

The actives had other plans for Buster. The actives said that it would be more fitting that Buster be buried at sea, and hence started the Buster Hymen Beach Run.

When we arrived down at Dockweiler Beach, the actives had all 31 of us take Buster out into the surf for his burial at sea. The winds and waves were up that night. They were crashing against us with such a great force, that a couple of pledges were ripped off the group and almost started getting pulled out to sea (Phil Raycraft). We quickly let go of Buster and pulled our pledge brothers back in and re-grouped on the beach. Then the Beach Run started.

The Beach Run was the traditional run from the past, digging, hanging, saying our pledge class name, etc. Every tradition from the past, plus the new one that started that day – The Buster Hymen Beach Run.  And a lot of pledge classes since then had to memorize our names.

While we still call ourselves the “31 or None” group and if you hear us recite our names, you’ll hear 32 names:

“Brant, Brown, Chang, Diemer, Dixon, Dodge, Fitzpatrick, Frym, Hayes, Hymen, Johnson, Kurz, Leonardi, Longeuay, Lynch, Manning, McCallick, Mendoza, Murphy, Pirruccello, Pohlson, Raycraft, Rowse, Russak, Saville, Sperry, Stadler, Tellez, Treinen, Trousil, Whitmore, Zolezzi!.”