BikeJuju Poughkeepsie: 1952 Yale-Vassar Bike Race

Thinking about that race that starts this weekend in France reminded me of this great set of Life images from The 1952 Yale-Vassar Bike Race. I graduated from Vassar 40 years later in 1992 (go, uh, Brewers!) so these images have a special resonance for me; main gate seen in many images has changed very little since 1952 (though the school’s been co-ed since 1969, so the days of Yale “mixers” are long over).

Yale and Vassar shared that special relationship that each of the Ivy League schools had with one of the “Seven Sisters” schools, and the Yale-Vassar Bike Race was apparently a madcap relay from New Haven to Poughkeepsie (75 miles) that occurred every year through the early fifties. Thanks to the Bicycle Diaries blog for bringing it to my attention (with the awesome post title Before There Was Velopunk There Was The Yale-Vassar Bike Race.)

Says Elizabeth Moffat Drouilhet, a member of the Vassar Class of 1930 and the Warden of the College from 1941 to 1976:

It was a period when young people were restless—we had the panty raids which affected most of the colleges in the country, we only had a few, but in those days to have a group of young men go into a women’s dormitory during the night was something that turned administrative officers white-haired.

These photos really have to be see at a larger size to be fully appreciated. Most of what I have posted here are crops from larger images, browse the whole collection here. I wonder what became of all that 8mm and 16mm film people are shooting in some of the images.

PS: Shout out to Ferry House alumni!