Remembering the Nearly Naked Mile: IU’s best Homecoming tradition
What gives?
Indiana University announced earlier this year that the Nearly Naked Mile would not be a part of the Homecoming activities this weekend.
In addition to Saturday afternoon’s football game against Nebraska, students have the opportunity to participate in a number of school spirit-boosting activities around Bloomington, including the Homecoming Parade and the Hoosier tailgate – the Nearly Naked Mile won’t be one of them.
The eight-year IU Homecoming tradition was put on by the IU Alumni Association, the Monroe County division of charity United Way and Union Board.
Typically, before the race began, students had access to live music and free samples of food and drinks at Dunn Meadow. Then, after donating $10 and/or two articles of clothing to United Way, students ran a mile from the corner of 7th and Indiana to Sample Gates dressed only in bras, underwear and the occasional tiny cheetah-print Speedo.
It was a great way for Hoosiers to get pumped up for the weekend football game, to relieve a little stress and have a few laughs with their friends and classmates while supporting both their university organizations and local philanthropic projects.
NNM used to be an annual opportunity for many to further work on their own body positivity—there’s something incredibly liberating about barreling down the main stretch of your university’s campus surrounded by hundreds of your also-scantily-clad peers.
But this year, Nearly Naked Mile was unexpectedly missing from the usual list of student activities offered at IU Homecoming.
So what gives?
When asked specifically about why NNM was no longer part of IU Homecoming, IU student event coordinator Kaitlyn Cole replied with a vague non-answer about how sad it was to see the event go from Homecoming, but that “there are plenty of other ways for students to get involved and show their Hoosier Spirit!”
When contacted, IU Alumni Association did not reply.
Though a clear reason for why the event wasn’t scheduled this year isn’t yet apparent, the disappointment of former participants is.
“I’m bummed that it’s not happening this year, because it was such an easy way to help others,” said Madeira Ferrario, an IU junior and NNM runner. “With the donation of two pieces of clothing, we were able to directly help people in a more concrete way than just giving money. You knew your clothes were going to directly help people. It was also just a great time – it created tons of memories, and the event t-shirts started conversations, which in turn allowed the topic of clothing donation to come up naturally in those conversations.”
Farewell for now, Nearly Naked Mile. You will be dearly missed.