Students run over Parents’ Weekend

by Erin Kelly, News Staff

More than 400 scantily-clad students sprinted to the Prudential Center and back last Friday night in the frigid 40-degree weather for the fifth annual Underwear Run.

The first annual Underwear Run was held on Columbus Day weekend in 2006 and has since moved to the Friday night of Parents’ Weekend, said Story Wibby, a 2010 graduate and one of the original creators of the event.

The summer before the first run, Wibby said he and his friends discussed the lack of traditions at Northeastern and came up with the idea of holding an annual underwear run.

Since Wibby graduated in May, he said the event has been passed down to several members of the track and cross-country team, including Joe Siravo and Matt Webber.

The run begins in front of Speare Hall and loops around campus, said Siravo, a senior business major and member of the track and cross-county teams. After the initial loop, the group gathers again in front of Speare and then runs through the Prudential Center before returning to campus.

Webber, a junior physics and math major, said the event has gotten bigger every year and generates a lot of enthusiasm from students, both as participants and spectators.

“We usually gather at Speare and do some Northeastern chants and some underwear chants to get everyone excited,” Webber said. “Everyone in the Pru who saw us was incredibly excited about it and were cheering for us. It was great.”

Despite the chilly weather this year, students were enthusiastic, Sirvano said.

“[Friday] was in the low 40s, high 30s maybe, it was definitely cold and probably turned people away, but once you get out there and there’s a couple hundred people around you, the adrenaline gets going a little and you don’t really feel [the cold] at all,” Siravo said.

Sophomore finance major Tessa Komine, who participated in the Underwear Run for the first time this year, said that she definitely felt the cold, but deemed the run worth the discomfort.

“I would definitely rather do it when it’s a little less chilly,” she said. “But it’s pretty awesome. It’s very unique. I don’t know of any other time I get to run through the Pru and through the streets in my underwear.”

Costumes have become more and more popular to wear during the run throughout the years, as opposed to those who just wear underwear, Siravo said.

“I know this year there was a person dressed as a cow out there, but normally what you see is people who like to wear different types of hats, some people wear bow ties or ties, and then there’s the different types of underwear,” Siravo said. “Last year a kid wore American flag underwear … kind of like a man thong.”

Siravo said that even though some people may think the Underwear Run is about dunk students running around the city, it’s not.

“[The run] is really just a practical joke type of thing,” Siravo said. “It’s the first day of Parents’ Weekend and a lot of kids come out and participate.”

The public enjoyed the spectacle as well, Komine said.

“When we ran through the Pru, people were looking at us like we were nuts,” she said. “And there were a lot of parents around … but they were all laughing.”

The run isn’t for any particular cause or charity: The main goal is to just have a good time.

“[The run],” Webber said. “Is just to get everyone to come out and have fun.”