Caltech students to get down and dirty in second annual Mudeo competition of the modern era

PASADENA, Calif.-A mud fight that would make the Three Stooges look like well-scrubbed ballerinas is set to take place on the California Institute of Technology campus at 2:30 p.m. Monday, January 17. The event, which is described as "a lot of random mayhem with tons of mud," will attract the participation of scores of otherwise dignified college students at one of the otherwise more dignified and staid science institutions in America.

According to Tom Mannion, assistant vice president for campus life at Caltech, Mudeo instantly became the most talked about and most celebrated student activity of 2004 when it was reactivated after years of dormancy. The men's and women's mud-wrestling matches became instant crowd favorites in particular, Mannion added.

"With all the rain we've had in the last few days, it's hard to walk from your dorm room to class without getting muddy," Mannion mused. "Might as well try to win some kind of trophy for it!"

Dating back to the 1920s, Mudeo originally featured arcane activities such as the "tire spree" with rules that aren't entirely clear from the sparse contemporary descriptions. Undaunted, the Associated Students of the California Institute of Technology (ASCIT) forged ahead with a new set of activities to make the "melee in the muck" a memorable one.

As in days of yore, the event requires only a sufficiently muddy site and students willing to sacrifice a set of clothing. The former requires little in the way of advanced preparation, considering the record torrents in the Los Angeles area during the last week. Nevertheless, an empty field beside one of the dorms has been mucked up a bit to ensure that contestants will not be hampered by insufficient griminess. Various trophies will be awarded, and contestants are urged to wear something they don't mind throwing away.

Members of the media may observe the muddy mayhem at the corner of Holliston Avenue and Del Mar Boulevard on the north side of the Caltech campus in Pasadena.