Gender Bending

You may have seem the recent news article about Northeastern University banning Chick Fil-A from campus because they were deemed to be "anti-gay" because of the charities the company supports. You might be surprised to learn that this is not the first time the University was involved in gender bending controversies.

Back in the dim ages of 1970, when PE was just a wee engineering student who also played trombone in the university band, a fellow student and band member learned that there was no gender requirement for Winter Carnival Queen. Upon discovering this, one Everett Nau, a solid citizen from the State of Maine and a drummer, decided to enter the competition. NUB, the Northeastern University Band, sponsored him. (The band was deemed an extracurricular activity as the university had no music major. Therefore, we students were alowed to run the asylum and did pretty much as we pleased - within limits)

To make a long story short, Everett, complete with mutton chop sideburns, won the competition and the right to represent the university as Winter Carnival Queen. His accomplishment became renown throughout the land and also landed him a guest spot on the quiz show, "To Tell the Truth".

Some people have tried to rationalize our prank as a backlash to the womens' lib movement or as an offshoot of the anti-war protests going on at that time. In truth, it was nothing more than a few students poking fun at the university establishment while blowing off a little steam in Boston's dark winter days. As a result of our endeavors, the rules were changed in subsequent years to limit the field to female persons only.

In the picture below, guess who is Everett.