Effective at 12:00 noon, Saturday, September 15, 1962, hazing is expressly
forbidden at Clarkson College. Students participating in any form of hazing
shall be subject to severe disciplinary measures by the college.
Paradoxically, while the State-imposed ban caused Clarkson beanies to
disappear from the Potsdam scene, freshman at neighboring SUCP, a state school,
continued to traverse the Clarkson campus- wearing their beanies.
Champion Bed Pushers.
At 3:55 p.m., Sunday, February 4, Clarkson's team became champion
"Bed Pushers." Starting at Lewis House at 7:00 Friday night, the bed pushers ran to Watertown
and back, breaking St. Lawrence's time of 42 hours with a record of 35 hours and 42 minutes
over a distance 22 miles longer. Not only was the team subjected to sub-zero temperatures and
sleet and rain, but they unfortunately were the victims of five North Country bed robbers and
truculent State Police.
The trouble started at 7:45 p.m. near Dixon's Corners. Stuart Ring '63, carrying some
bed pushers in his 1958 sedan, stopped on the pavement about 200 feet from the crest of a hill.
A car cresting the hill from the other direction saw the bed pushers, Ring's car, and other
students in the road. Swerving to avoid hitting anyone, the oncoming car skidded, went off the
left side of the road, and came to rest on its top in a field.
Troopers arrived on the scene just then and issued summons to the Clarkson students.
And the bed pushers continued toward Potsdam. The troopers, however, determined that the
road conditions were too hazardous for the pushers to continue. After they caught up with the
panting students four miles outside Gouverneur about
10:40 p.m., they told the students to leave the bed where it was until daylight
when they could resume their race.
Five local boys, however, discovered the bed before daylight, and abducted it to
Somerville. When the Clarkson champs discovered their loss, they reported it to the
Gouverneur constable who in turn notified the State Police. Once the bed was recovered, the
champs headed for Potsdam again, only to lose the bed again to "bednappers" just outside
Gouverneur while the pushers sought refreshment in a restaurant. Not knowing what to do with
it, the kidnappers pushed it over an embankment outside Gouverneur. This time the troopers
became "good guys" and arrested the five abductors, who later were fined $10.00 each for "bed-
robbing." Clear sailing for the rest of the way brought Clarkson's champs home in the record
time.
Later, the champs were invited to participate in the Massena International Bed-Pushers
Tournament held during the Massena Festival of 1962. Also invited were St. Lawrence and
Plattsburgh State. The St. Lawrence team failed to show up for the event, and Plattsburgh
Student Council proclaimed that they did not have the time to waste on such trivialities because
they all were so busy studying. Clarkson's team showed up anyway, and to the delight of the
3,000 spectators, they raced around a track on the ice-covered Lake St. Lawrence, and
then brought home the trophy engraved:
International Bed-Pushing Championship
Massena Festival 1962
Class of 1965
