I have always heard of the famed Rolla "Alice". What is the freaking story with the St. patty Alice?

Alice was a large vat of liquidy...stuff. Anything and everything could go into it. "Nerd", a rep from '82 from my house, was informing me on some of the more details of it this past Pat's. That year he was in charge of it. That year, a hog's head that had been rotting in the backyard went into it. Generally each house would bring something to put into Alice. I think mine would bring our 55gal barrel of grease. But anything and everything went in...shit, piss, puke, alcohol...anything. Last but not least, it was an "honor" to be thrown into Alice.

At least, that's how I heard the story.

Yup, he got it right. Usually the St. Pat's Knights were thrown into it; but a lot of times pledges were too.

So did people actually get sick and die from being tossed into Alice?

Before I started here, a couple of people who work with my dad told me all about Alice and if I was ever priviledged enough to be thrown in to coat myself in vasoline and plug up my nose and ears with cotton. Unfortunately, Alice was gone before I got here. I have pictures somewhere that I can scan in for you eventually.

Here's some Alice info I put in the Miner sometime last semester:

Traditionally knighting ceremonies were held on the Friday afternoon, after St. Pat’s traditional speech at Norwood Hall. The entire senior class was knighted, as opposed to the few that are elected today. In the early 1950’s, the ceremony was moved to Friday night at the Coronation Ball, where the Queen of Love and Beauty is crowned. The ceremony was moved again, to Saturday, in 1957. The tradition slightly changed in 1961, where each knight, representing their organization, was dunked head first into “The Blarney Stone”, a strange mixture that made such a mess of the new Student Union building that the knighting ceremony was forced to be moved outdoors to Lion’s Club Park in the following years. The event became referred to as Alice in the spring of 1967 after the girlfriend of then Board president, Rich Dumay (TKE), dropped him like a bad habit.
In 1969, the location of Alice's contents were discovered and disposed of a few days before St. Pat's. Thereafter its location became a secret and it was guarded.
In 1996 the Chancellor called off the Alice tradition, and knighting ceremonies were non-existent until St. Pat’s 2001, when the Carnival of Knights came about.

Yeah, I've heard that you don't want to be thrown in, but you want to run your ass off and get into it. After being coronated, you'd have to out-run the st. pats knights to Alice, or they sack your ass and throw you in.

I don't think that anyone died from being tossed in. From what I know is that only two people have ever died inconjunction with the St. Pat's Board
Activities, I'm not sure how the first one died, but the second one was in '91 I believe.

My dad was thrown into Alice and he did get sick, it just added to the others who were thrown into it. To show the tradition of it, the first question about St. Pat's from him was "Is Alice still around?"

alice story courtesy my pledge brother's dad, a theta xi from..... oh...... the late 70s i believe

according to him, he saw a guy get thrown into alice, now we all know what alice is, but this is great. he says the guy get completely submerged, and when he surfaces he has a dead rat in his mouth. he takes a bite out of the mouse and spits it at the crowd! now THAT is hardcore. i don't think i could ever compete with that...

Just come up with a new more insidious tradition.

It'll take the administration a while to find out about it, and when they ban it, start another tradition.

Where did the name Alice come from?

Thanks for the info guys and gals.