Twenty-five years ago this week, during the week of Homecoming 1979, pranks and practical jokes were ubiquitous. Amherst students stole Williams football jerseys directly from the rival school's locker room. On the next night, a different group of students "went around with black paint and a stencil and covered sidewalks and doorsteps with the words Beat Williams," according to The Amherst Student. This motto was also written on a banner that hung from Johnson Chapel for the entire week preceding Homecoming next to a portrait of President Emeritus John William Ward in polka-dotted boxer shorts. Despite the boldness and enthusiasm exhibited in all of these pranks, none of them compared to the one that took place during halftime of Saturday's football game. This infamous prank involved a cameo appearance of the College's famous stolen statue, Sabrina.

John Ross '79 parachuted into the center of the field to distract the viewers from seeing Sabrina riding on a motorized cart escorted by four people in tuxedos. The audience broke out in hysteria and excitement after witnessing this "coup of the first magnitude," according to The Student. It was obvious to everyone that Sabrina was once again "rescued by heroic, anonymous students from the greasy paws of corrupt administrators." Even though the football team lost that day, it truly was a victory for the pranksters.

Sabrina was a gift to the College in 1857, and there has been a long tradition of students "kidnapping" her ever since. At first it was considered a standard prank for every class; she's been in a West Virginian coal mine, a Connecticut jail and even at the bottom of the Connecticut River. Finally in 1977, the class of '52 returned her to campus, where she was securely bolted to a cement base in Converse Hall. This, however, did not stop three juniors at the College from tying up the security guard, locking him in the bathroom, popping off the plexiglass case and pulling out Sabrina with crow bars. After this kidnapping, rumors ensued about the thieves and the whereabouts of Sabrina. Many believed that, prior to the cameo on the football field, the statue had been flown to California and was hidden in Robert Redford's basement; however, the statue was actually buried in Westport, Conn. in the yard of one of the thieves. Sabrina's current location remains a mystery.