Speare Place was overrun with hundreds of Northeastern students stripped down to their underwear Saturday night as they waited to begin the 16th annual Underwear Run. After two years of cancellations due to COVID-19, and one unofficial run organized by two students, Northeastern students Pierre Sylvain and Anders Narita were excited to bring back the tradition to campus this year. They began advertising the event in June over Instagram.

The run has never been an official Northeastern event, but students on the track and field team organized the run this year and in years past. Sylvain, a fourth-year business administration and communication studies combined major and member of the D1 team, was eager to make this one memorable.  

“We’ve been really motivated to try to provide an awesome experience for all the Northeastern students,” Sylvain said, as he set up the DJ booth. “But it’s also kind of nerve-wracking thinking about if the equipment doesn’t work, or if it’s just us in our underwear and a bunch of DJs here.”

Around 9 p.m. on Oct. 1 outside of Speare Hall, hundreds of underwear-clad attendees danced to the sets by DJs Pots N Pans and Paz before and after the actual run, which consisted of a 1.4-mile lap around campus.

Co-organizer Narita, a fourth-year industrial engineering major, joined many other Huskies in their first time running. Some of the first-timers, like Narita, were upperclassmen, eager to finally experience the tradition.

“This is my first time,” said Daunte Pean, a third-year mechanical engineering major. “I heard about it last year and it was too late, and I couldn’t join in. So I promised myself I’d do it this year.” 

After the Underwear Run had been canceled for a second time due to COVID-19 last year, students Max Daniels and Cathleen Zhang organized an unofficial run.

The event was an introduction to the school for some first-years as well. Henry Shields, a first-year computer engineering major, summed up what the event entailed.  

“So people just kind of run around in their underwear, I think. I don’t know much more than that,” Shields said.

For returning runners, the event brought old friends together again. Gillian Audia, a fifth-year chemical engineering and biochemistry combined major, declared this may be her favorite run of the three she has done.  

“I’m with some friends I haven’t seen since freshman year, and we just reconnected,” Audia said. “It’s like coming back full circle after five years here.”

Many students, both new and returning to the tradition, praised the run for empowering young adults. Paul Wisnaskas, a fourth-year biology major, says the reason why the run is so important is because it promotes body positivity among the student population at Northeastern. Wisnaskas participated in the 2019 Underwear Run, which ran through the Prudential Center.  

Though the route of the run has changed from years prior, now sticking to campus rather than going down Huntington Avenue and ending in the Prudential Center, the Underwear Run is no less beloved by Northeastern students.

“Weird tradition, you know? It’s a really weird thing if you think about it,” said Jack Osterhage, a third-year physics and philosophy combined major, before the runners set off. He was running with Sarah Wang, a second-year politics, philosophy and economics major.  

“It definitely captures the essence of Northeastern,” Wang said.  

As students returned to Speare Quad after completing the run, some of them had already begun talking about next year, including third-year graphic design major Syd Tomasello.

“Let’s do it again next year,” Tomasello said. “Let’s make it bigger. Let’s make it crazier. Let’s make it more silly and goofy.”