Walk Out Day at Northwest Since 1915

The history of Walkout Day at Northwest Missouri State University features several funny, rebellious, and notable events that shaped the tradition into what it is today.

Jokes

Here are a few lighthearted jokes about Northwest Missouri State University’s Walkout Day, capturing the unique spirit of the tradition:

• Why did the university president chase the students down the Wabash tracks in 1915?
  Because he heard the Home Economics department was serving “forbidden fruit”—and by fruit, he meant 20 gallons of unauthorized hard cider!
• What’s the difference between a 1915 Bearcat and a modern Bearcat on Walkout Day?
  The 1915 Bearcat walked a mile down the railroad tracks to build a dirt footpath. The modern Bearcat walks a block to the student union, grabs a free T-shirt, and considers it a high-intensity workout.
• Why is Walkout Day permanently scheduled for the Friday of Homecoming Week?
  Because the administration realized the only thing stronger than a student’s desire to skip class is their absolute panic over not having enough tissue napkins pomped onto their parade float by Saturday morning.
• What did the Bell of ’48 say to the thousands of students waiting in suspense on Friday morning?
  “Don’t worry, I’ve got your back. One ring from me, and your weekend starts early—just try not to knock over your professor on your way out the door!”
• Why do local Maryville hardware and grocery stores love Walkout Day?
  Because it’s the only day of the year when a group of college students will clean out their entire stock of chicken wire, spray paint, and thousands of paper napkins in under thirty minutes.

History

The 1915 Bugle Rebellion (How It Started)

The very first Walkout Day on October 22, 1915, was entirely unplanned by the administration and played out like a scene from a movie:

• The Bait: A student stood outside the main Administration Building and blew a bugle call into the crisp October air. [1]
• The Exodus: Over 200 students immediately walked out of their classrooms and began hiking a half-mile down the Wabash railroad tracks. [1]
• The Angry President: University President Ira Richardson was furious. He chased after the massive procession, caught up with them on the tracks, and strictly ordered them back to class. [1]
• The Accomplices: The students completely ignored him and kept walking. Making matters funnier, the university’s own Home Economics department had secretly mutinied too—they were already waiting at the secret picnic site with a barrel of apples, sandwiches, hot dogs, and 20 gallons of cider to reward the runaway students. After eating, they played a massive, chaotic game of baseball. [1]
• The Truce: Realizing he couldn’t defeat the student body’s collective stubbornness, President Richardson negotiated a truce: if they gave him advanced notice next time, he would officially cancel classes. [1]

The scenic, wooded area along the One Hundred and Two River where the students gathered became affectionately known as Tunnel Woods. [1]

Historical logs from Northwest Missouri State University note that early Walkout Day excursions frequently targeted Tunnel Woods for their all-school picnics, clearing space under the trees to set up swings, competitive games, and outdoor food stations. The name perfectly captured the dense, canopy-like cover of the trees surrounding the riverbanks and the railroad crossing where the students successfully hid from the university president. [1]

The Morning Assembly Guessing Game

Instead of waiting to hear a bell chime from their regular classrooms, students were typically gathered by the administration into a mandatory all-school morning assembly. [1]

• The Suspense: Rumors would swirl all week about which day would be chosen, but nothing was official. Students would packed into the auditorium, looking at the stage to read the room.
• The Declaration: The University President (or a student leader under the administration’s direction) would step up to the podium. If the “Walkout” was approved for that day, the president would make the formal announcement right then and there. [1, 2]
• The Immediate Dismissal: The announcement was met with cheers, and classes for the rest of the day were instantly dissolved. Students immediately exited the assembly hall to kick off the outdoor festivities. [1, 2]

Labor Over Festivities

Before 1948, Walkout Day was rarely a multi-day party or parade weekend. It was structured strictly as a day of collective campus work followed by a community reward. [1, 2]

• The Blueprint: Once dismissed from the assembly, students didn’t leave campus or work on parade floats (Homecoming didn’t even start until 1924). Instead, they grabbed tools, rakes, and shovels. [1]
• The Hikes & Ballgames: After completing several hours of physical labor—like clearing brush, constructing dirt footpaths, or landscaping around the Administration Building—the entire student body and faculty would embark on a massive, unified hike to a local park or wooded area. There, they would eat large picnic lunches prepared by the Home Economics department and play campus-wide baseball games. [1, 2]

The World War II Disruptions

In the years leading up to the Class of 1948’s historic gift, the tradition faced unprecedented logistical challenges due to World War II. [1, 2]

• The Navy V-12 Conflict (1943): In October 1943, Walkout Day was canceled entirely and replaced with a formal evening dance. The campus was hosting a massive contingent of Navy V-12 program officer candidates. Because these men were under strict military orders, they literally could not “walk out” of their scheduled duties.
• The 1944 Hybrid: By 1944, a compromise was reached. The morning assembly structure returned for the civilian students, who spent the day on traditional Walkout activities, while a campus-wide dance was held in the evening so both civilians and military men could celebrate together. [1]

When the Class of 1948 commissioned the bronze memorial bell to honor the soldiers who fought and died in WWII, it beautifully merged a solemn memorial with the school’s most beloved tradition. It moved the signal out of the assembly hall and out into the open quad, giving birth to the iconic morning rush.

Bell of 1948 Signal

Historically, students had to show up on campus Friday morning and sit through their early classes in agonizing suspense.

• The Signal: No one knew exactly what minute the holiday would begin until the Bell of ’48 (a monumental bronze bell gifted by the class of 1948) started ringing across the quad.
• The Mad Dash: The second the bell clanged, professors would stop mid-sentence, and thousands of students would literally sprint out of the buildings to kick off the weekend festivities. Today, the university spares students the suspense by officially closing the entire campus in advance, but they still gather at 8:00 AM sharp to hear the celebratory ringing of the bell that marks the start of the holiday.

The 1971 Ban: Things Got “Inappropriate”

As decades passed, the “unsupervised holiday” vibe of Walkout Day occasionally got out of hand.

• The 1971 Discontinuation: By the late 1960s and early 1970s, the tradition had drifted far from its roots in community service and picnics. Students used the surprise day off to engage in what university archives dryly note as “inappropriate off-campus activities” (which translates to massive, rowdy day-drinking parties that spilled into the town of Maryville).
• The Six-Year Timeout: The administration grew so tired of the chaos that they completely banned Walkout Day in 1971.

The Homecoming Rescue 1977

• It took until 1977 for the student body to win the holiday back. The compromise that saved it was tethering Walkout Day permanently to the Friday of Homecoming Week. This kept students on campus because they desperately needed the day off to finish their highly competitive parade floats and house decorations before Saturday morning. [1, 2, 3]

In the modern academic calendar, Walkout Day is seamlessly integrated as the crown jewel of Homecoming Week, held annually on the Friday before the big game

. Instead of the raw chaos of the early 1900s, the modern tradition is a highly anticipated, structured university holiday built directly into the student and community timeline. [1, 2, 3]

The Annual Homecoming Context

Walkout Day is no longer a random surprise. It acts as a structural bridge between the academic week and the intense festival weekend: [1, 2]

• Complete Academic Shutdown: The university officially cancels all Friday classes. This closure extends to campus research facilities, laboratory schools (like Horace Mann), and preschool programs, completely freeing the campus populace. [1, 2]
• The Float-Building “Crunch Time”: Because the massive Homecoming Parade takes place early Saturday morning, student groups utilize the Friday Walkout Day as a critical, 24-hour construction buffer. Campus squares and front yards turn into massive production sites where organizations finish pomping floats and staging jalopies.

The Modern Friday Walkout Day Timeline

Time	Event Name	Core Purpose & Activity
7:00 AM	T-Shirt Giveaway	Students flood the J.W. Jones Student Union to claim their exclusive, highly collectible annual Walkout Day gear.
8:00 AM	Ringing of the Bell of ’48	The University President and Student Senate leaders ring the historic quad bell, officially launching the campus-wide holiday.
9:00 AM	The Maryville Influx	Classes officially close. Current students swarm downtown breakfast spots, while student organizations enter final “crunch-time” float pomping.
1:45 PM	The Parade of Nations	International students proudly march from the B.D. Owens Library carrying the flags of their home countries.
2:00 PM	Flag-Raising Ceremony	The parade culminates at the Joyce and Harvey White International Plaza, raising the flags to celebrate the global Bearcat family.
Evening	Reunions & Hall of Fame	The M-Club hosts its official Hall of Fame induction banquet while departments hold welcome receptions for returning alumni.

Setting up the Weekend Grand Finale

By structural design, Walkout Day is meant to exhaustively prepare the campus mindset for the primary weekend attractions: [1]

• Saturday Pre-Game Grid: Once Walkout Day concludes, attention immediately turns to Saturday morning’s 9:00 AM Homecoming Parade through the streets of Maryville, followed directly by the Bearcat Zone tailgating festivities. [1, 2]
• The Core Intent: The holiday successfully transforms what could be a simple football weekend into a deeply immersive, multi-day homecoming culture that binds current students, community merchants, and historical alumni. [1, 2]

Other Colleges Walkout Days

Many of these traditions are incredibly old—in fact, some predated the colleges’ having dedicated groundskeeping or maintenance departments. The core idea evolved out of the physical necessity of running a school in the 1800s and early 1900s. [1, 2, 3]

Timeline of “Walkout” & Surprise Holiday Traditions

University	Tradition Name	Year Started	Historical Context
Williams College	Mountain Day	1800 (as “Chip Day”)	Started as a mandatory day off for students to clear away woodchips and debris left over from cutting firewood during the winter. It became an outdoor hiking day in 1857.
Northwest Missouri State	Walkout Day	1915	Officially sanctioned by the university president to replace spontaneous, disruptive student walkouts with a unified day of campus labor and picnics.
Friends University	WALKOUT!	1950s	Began post-WWII as a student-led, high-energy rally to demand a spontaneous day off to celebrate major athletic or campus achievements.
Tufts University	Tufts Mountain Day	2005	Created by the student-run Mountain Club to bring outdoor bonding, apple bobbing, and camp-style quad activities directly to the modern student body.