On February 28, 1983, one of the greatest television series came to an end. M*A*S*H had become one of the biggest comedy series ever. The last episode was a big deal. I was in college at the time and the last episode of a show like this was a good excuse for fraternities to have parties. Every fraternity on our campus would have a M*A*S*H themed party and mine was no exception. Everyone wore military or medical themed outfits. The administration of our Methodist Church affiliated school was well aware that everyone would be having parties that night so they would be on patrol for potential infractions of the no-alcohol on campus policy. The fraternity houses were owned by the school, so we expected the visit that the Deans made early that night.
I was running late to the party because I had a class that evening. It was a computer programming class, and our professor was a M*A*S*H fan, so we got out early that night. When I arrived at the party, it was in full swing. We had several televisions set up throughout our house just for this occasion. I think most of the people at the party were like me. I became a fan of the show in high school. I still liked it, but watching sitcoms regularly was not a priority in college. I still saw it often enough to have a good time watching, in addition to just having fun at the party.
Even though this show aired on a Monday, it still took a while for the party to die down. The real excitement for the night was just beginning. The local channel that showed syndicated M*A*S*H reruns after the news aired the first two episodes that night. I began to lose interest and decided to return to my dorm room soon after the first episode aired. When I got to my room, I discovered that the power was out for the entire campus. Our fraternity house was the only place on campus that had electricity. The guys in my dorm were in the mood to keep the party going that night. There was screaming and cheering. No one was going to sleep any time soon. I gathered with the crowd in the hall as the party continued. Soon it was decided that we would take a trip to the flagpole.
Cheering around the flagpole in the center of our campus was a tradition for all the Greek organizations at our school. It was a place for each organization to publicly celebrate anything. These celebrations usually involved doing a few cheers then singing a fraternity song or two. Each group had different cheers and songs that were unique to that group. This night was different because we had guys from all fraternities along with guys that weren’t in any of these groups. When we got to the flagpole, we didn’t have any specific songs or cheers to do. I just remember lots of yelling primarily directed at the Freshman women’s dormitory. Soon their windows opened at they were yelling back at us. That’s when the guys all mooned the dormitory. Next there were whispers of a panty raid at the other women’s dorm. Some of the school administrators were on campus at this point and were generally amused with the activities. I decided to return to my room and not participate in the panty raid. I was still up and hanging out in my room when the guys returned, closely followed by a group of girls performing their own underwear raid of the men’s dorm. That was when I decided to go back to the fraternity house to hang out. I joined some of my friends who had decided to make a late night run to the local Krystal’s for some sliders. When we returned, the electricity was back on everywhere and we went to bed.