Conducted in good humor, fraternity scavenger hunts were positive bonding experiences while at the same time, they fueled rivalries, built loyalty and brought lots of interesting trinkets into the possession of the frat. Twenty-one years ago this week, Delta Upsilon Delta's (DUD) innocent fun turned rowdy when, as The Student reported, things "got a little out of hand."

Though the fraternity blamed the rowdiness on townies and UMass students who crashed the hunt, four fraternity members were arrested by town police officers on charges of disorderly conduct and malicious destruction of property. "Amherst College security also confiscated a wide array of 'contraband' gathered over the course of the night," The Student reported.

The list of objects to be collected included Valentine silverware, flags from the choir room in Arms Music Building, a dog belonging to one of the deans, a dumpster, rugs, paintings, two stuffed roosters from the biology department and a PVTA bus.

Town police became involved when students were seen driving across the greens of the Amherst Golf Club, in hopes of absconding with flags from the holes, The Student reported.

Though no immediate action was taken against DUD, complaints were later lodged against the fraternity by the library and the athletic department. But the biology department was more forgiving. "'We are not happy that they took our chickens, but as a College with young people in it, there has to be an amount of tolerance for certain mischievous activities,'" said Professor of Biology William Hexter to The Student.