Undie Run Season: Getting Half Naked for Charity

By COED Staff

Is there anything more satisfying than stripping down for charity? College students don’t think so. This Friday marks the start of  the 2010 AXE Undie Run Challenge, a two-month long, nationwide event that stretches from coast to coast.

The now infamous event began in the early ’00s at UCLA as a way for coeds to release energy, stress and tension at the end of a long semester. The first run began in 2002, at the stroke of midnight, with 13 guys jumping up and down in their skivvies onto Glenrock Avenue. The Undie Run was an act of defiance, if not a blatant sausage-fest, against UCPD for deploying scores of officers to prevent UCLA’s version of the Midnight Yell from getting out of control…again. (The Midnight Yell, though founded by Texas A&M, had broken into a melee of broken windows and burning couches in 2001 at UCLA.) Four years later – the length of study for most undergraduates – the Undie Run became a bonafide Bruin event.

Last spring, UCLA officials, tired of testosterone-fueled guys running across the hoods of parked cars and of drunken students face-planting on Westwood streets, designated a path through campus. No longer 13 strong, Undie Run boasted 5,000 participants by police estimates in June – about 150 more than this fall’s anticipated freshman class. Wearing boxers or briefs, cotton panties or lace thongs – and in some cases miraculously less – students ran, walked and frolicked down Gayley, across De Neve Plaza, past Pauley Pavilion and up Bruin Walk. The run culminated for many with a dip in Shapiro Fountain, between UCLA’s most iconic buildings. On the last day of classes, students stripped down and ran across campus wearing nothing but their undies. It wasn’t only a great way to stick it to the administration for assigning that day after spring break exam, but it was also an awesome excuse to see all your favorite classmates wearing close to nothing.

Unsurprisingly, word about the event spread fast and it wasn’t long before campuses across the country started organizing their own yearly Undie Runs. And because college students are constantly trying to outdo themselves (You took 10 shots? I’ll take 11!), the runs have gotten bigger and better. So big in fact, that this year, ASU is attempting to break the Guinness World Record for the most people wearing nothing but underwear in one place. And just when you’re thinking that this event sounds too good to be true, it gets even better. All the clothes taken off at the beginning of every run are donated to a local charity. Not only are the students donating clothes, but the guys’ grooming brand, AXE, is matching all of their donations, pound for pound. Try to name one thing better than college students running around naked for a good cause.

Can’t? Didn’t think so.

Want to get in on the action? Check out their schedule below and keep an eye on their Facebook page. Is your school included? Well as a COED reader, we expect that you’ll be running…

School: Boston
Location: Cassidy Park
Date/Time: Friday April 30th, 9:00 PM

School: ASU
Location: Tempe Student Recreation Center Field
Date/Time: Tuesday May 4th, 8:00 PM

School: KU
Location: Outside the Union on Jayhawk Blvd
Date/Time: Thursday May 6th, 10:00 PM

School: UW – Madison
Location: Library Mall
Time: Thursday May 6th, 10:30 PM

School: Austin
Location: The Quarter’s Parking Lot across from Pluckers, 2222 Rio Grande
Date/ Time: Friday May 7th, 5:00 PM

School: University of Maryland
Location: Front steps of McKelden
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 11th, 10:00 PM

School: University of Washington
Location: Memorial Way
Date/Time: Tuesday May 11th, 8:00 PM

School: San Diego State
Location: TBD
Date/Time: Wednesday May 12, TBD

School: Ohio State
Location: Corner of 15th and High Street
Date/Time: Thursday May 20th, 9:00 PM

School: UC Santa Barbara
Location: Davidson
Date/Time: Wednesday June 9th, Midnight