Jonathon Youshaei and Spencer Penn | Our Skimmer story

We want it all for our classmates. Our school has already given us so much — amazing academics, social life and career opportunities — but what if we could have more? We’re always striving to add memories, experience and value to our undergraduate lives. This year, the Class Boards of 2013 and 2014 saw a great opportunity to both renew a spark in Penn athletics and revive a Penn tradition in need of excitement. This is how the vision for our Skimmer began.

Penn is already an elite school, but what if we could rise to the level of universities like Notre Dame, Michigan, and Southern California in terms of spirit for sports, particularly football? There’s absolutely no reason we can’t. We have all the right ingredients. A celebrated history — while the Heisman Trophy is awarded every year, John Heisman himself wore a Quaker uniform. A winning team — our boys are young and talented and are Ivy League champions two years running. A supportive administration — the Athletics Department has been working heavily with student government groups and Red & Blue Crew to raise attendance at sporting events.

Skimmer became the perfect solution to finally do it right for athletics. But before making any moves, we wanted to understand the tradition’s history. We wanted to speak with alumni who lived the event in its prime. We also wanted to speak with current students and recent graduates about their Skimmer experience.

The history of Skimmer is fascinating. Many of us may know the event as a sophomore-only tradition, but it was once a school-wide event as celebrated as Spring Fling. In fact, it literally used to be Spring Fling.

In 1949, students started gathering together by the Schuylkill River to celebrate coach Rusty Callow and his crew team — the event was originally called “Callow Day.” In 1951, it became “Skimmer Day” — Skimmer being another name for the straw hats which students wore to the event. Students would sing, dance and celebrate together to the sounds of outdoor music. In the 1950s, however, things started spiraling out of control. The University had to crack down on illicit and rowdy student behavior and gradually stripped away Skimmer’s meaning and identity. By 1973, the University canceled Skimmer and created Spring Fling to offer a tamer, more-controlled version of the musical celebration on campus grounds. Shortly thereafter, the University took the iconic Skimmer hats and attributed them to Hey Day. Today’s styrofoam hats have a direct lineage to the straw hats of Skimmer.

More recently, there have been great attempts to bring back Skimmer. But in the spring, Skimmer had to now compete for campus attention with Spring Fling, Hey Day, Penn Relays and newly formed traditions such as Final Toast. A crowded second-semester schedule coupled with unpredictable spring weather patterns made it hard for Skimmer to succeed. Due in part to these reasons, Skimmer moved indoors to Houston Hall, moved away from athletics and became more about free food and free t-shirts.

Moving Skimmer to the fall made sense — enough to take a risk and hopefully revive the tradition. In talking with alumni, we saw that the biggest draw of the old Skimmer was being together, being outside and listening to festival music. Moreover, a Skimmer in autumn would be the perfect first impression to kick off the football season and hopefully create momentum for all athletic teams moving forward.

We also wanted to do something that has never been done before. As such, we collaborated with the administration to amend the University Risk Management Code and bring in hot-air balloons. We’ve loved the reaction thus far and hope this addition will draw people out to also enjoy the live Dave Matthews cover band, performance by the Quaker Girls, festival food, caricature drawings, photo booths and much more.

We’re excited to be doing this together. We’re excited by the campus feedback so far. And we’re excited to be creating a memory that we will hopefully be talking about for years to come.

Jonathon Youshaei and Spencer Penn are the junior and sophomore Class Board presidents, respectively. Their email addresses are youshaei@wharton.upenn.edu and penns@wharton.upenn.edu.

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