This is a fun story, for those of you unfamiliar with "The Great BYU Pillow Fight of 1986." It seems that there are a number of people over the years who have tried to take credit for starting it all, but here you will find what actually happened:
It was a sunday evening following the last week of classes before study week, prior to finals for fall semester, 1986. Brian and Jed were running up and down the hall beating each other with pillows, occasionally bursting into other people's dorm rooms, and basically annoying everyone. Sven the R.A. was in storytelling mode, and started to recount the tale of his early days at BYU before his mission when about 20 guys went out into the quad of Helaman Halls and had a pillow fight. Apparently, BYU security showed up, stopped the fight, and made everyone go back to their rooms.
So, being the juvenile deliquent that I was, the gears started turning in my head and I tried to pressure a few people into starting a pillow fight in the quad at midnight (which meant it'd be Monday -- no breaking of the Sabbath). First response from Brian and Jed and others on my floor was flat -- they'd show up if other people showed up. So I took another tact - I began to call John Hall and Chipman Hall, daring people to be there. Back in those days, phone numbers in each dorm were serial, for example room 200 would have a phone number of 555-0400, room 201 would be 555-0401, and so forth. So after about 50 calls, people on my floor were finally beginning to get excited. In fact, Jed and Brian began running up and down the halls of different floors in Hinckley Hall.
At midnight, about 25 or so of us made our way out into the quad, pillows in hand. We stood at the top of the quad, the Cannon Center stairs to our backs, perring down the quad toward John and Chipman halls. On our left, Hinckley Hall was wide awake, most people watching out their windows to see if someone would take us up on our challenge. Suddenly there was a cat call from the bottom of the quad -- about 30 or more guys started slowly moving up out of the shadows.
Suddenly we heard a door slam open on our left, and we turned to see people scampering down the Hinckley hall stairwell to join our defense at the top of the hill. Just as they joined us, the attackers fell upon us. Pillows were flying everywhere. But we beat them off. More people were gathering from Hinckley, but it was obvious that more and more were arriving from John and Chipman, as well. But we held our ground - we defended the hill.
The throng down the hill regrouped and ran at us again. We stood our ground, screaming out in defiance of the crowd approaching. But suddenly, from our right and out of our sight range, a gaggle (oh I don't know how many are in a gaggle -- 20 or 30?) of co-eds hit our flank.
The girls had arrived....
Man, it's been a long time since I thought about that pillow fight. Good times. I almost hate to do this to you, but after stumbling across your story, I just can't stop myself. Don't feel too bad though, you did exactly what you were supposed to do, right alongside the "number of people over the years who have tried to take credit for starting it all."
I'll try to make this quick for you, like yanking off a bandaid - but first, one teeny little correction - "The Great BYU Pillow Fight of 1986" didn't actually happen until 1987. Ok, the bandaid part - you didn't start the pillow fight. I know, I know, you really believe you did. But, you didn't.
The pillow fight actually started a long time before you think it did, and trust me, you weren't the only group on campus to 'spontaniously' break out pillows that day... "occasionally bursting into other people's dorm rooms, and basically annoying everyone." The same thing was happening all over campus, and the story you told here has been told and retold - almost always with the person telling it claiming to have started it all.
There were much bigger delinquents involved than you and your buddies. Me and my buddies. The pillow fight was my sociological experiment in terror. My roommate and I started early in the afternoon (long before your evening antics began) planting the seeds of the massive pillow fight - like when you intentionally get a song stuck in your buddies head. Hours later, he's whistling it, singing it. If you play it off just right, he'll never even know you did it.
Same deal.
My buddies and I worked the campus all afternoon. We dropped the words 'pillow fight' into just about every sentance we spoke all morning. Later, we pretended to have heard rumors of pillow fight challenges between halls. Mostly, we 'unintentionally' let people overhear the 'inside scoop' and then other times we just came right out and told them about the pillow fight as if we'd just heard.
Anyway, it was a clear victory in so many ways. I am a proud papa.
For the record, you got a few other facts wrong too, like the police car - nobody rocked the police car. One girl did drive her car into the crowd and her car was definitely rocked, but not the police. It's a great image, but be realistic - I was pulled over and surrounded in Provo by six police cars because one of the officers thought he saw me smoking a cigarette. He was mistaken, and after some good old-fashioned Provo cop hassling, I was released. My point is just that nobody rocked the cop car.
You said that you still had the letter and some news clippings? I'd love to see that. (Especially anything that says 1986.)
;)
Bored Youth Unite!
Posted by: Joe Walser | January 31, 2006 at 04:46 AM
um, dude, nice try. seeing how i was there, and all of the facts that i recorded were exactly how it happened, stop toking the weed and move on, man.
yes, there were many other pillow fight attempts. some in the early eighties - the story of which led to that fateful night in December 1986 when this escapade happened.
i know that attempts were made again in 87 and 88, because i was still at the Y and heard about them. then the school stepped in and created a sanctioned version, which was held over in cougar stadium with non-BYU materials (ie pillows).
but maybe you're right - maybe i'm just disillusioned about the time, the place, and the fact that people who were never involved are someone involved (that would be you). and i guess my ex-roommates and friends who were all there are wrong, and my ex-Bishop, Earl Larsenm who was head of the Cannon Center at the time and who i just saw at a BYU game last fall and discussed the whole endeavor, is also wrong. As would be those "alleged" newspaper clippings.
or maybe time travel was involved. who knows.
over the years, i too have heard many claims that they started the great pillow fight of 86, which blew away all earlier attempts and has not been duplicated since. i'm not saying you didn't participate in a weak attempt to recreate what went before, but dude, get a freaking clue.
Posted by: actually... | February 04, 2006 at 03:22 PM