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Newman Day (also Newman's Day), is a collegiate drinking ritual where 24 beers are consumed over 24 hours, founded by students of Bates College, in Lewiston, Maine. The tradition has since been used in the creation of the Dartmouth Challenge, Newman Night, Kitty Dukakis Day, and Fourth-Year Fifth. It is held every April 24 at the college. It was long believed that it was named for the late beer-drinking actor Paul Newman and his apocryphal remark made during a campus speech: "24 hours in a day, 24 beers in a case. Coincidence? I think not." The tradition has been picked up by his alma mater, Kenyon College, and other spin offs are known among Harvard College, College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University, Princeton University and the University of Virginia.
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History
Research has shown references made to Newman Day in The Bates Student as early as the late 1970s, including alumni who remember days of cafeteria food fights following each year's celebration. One early Friday morning during Bates College Winter Carnival in January 1976, one of the original participants had read in a magazine article that Paul Newman claimed to drink 24 beers in 24 hours with 10 pushups between each drink. The tradition (originally named "Paul Newman Day") began in Herrick house with 3 Bates students participating.
Newman himself opposed the tradition, which received media attention in 2004 after Newman's lawyer sent a letter to both Princeton University and Bates College registering Mr. Newman's disapproval, and requesting that the event be disassociated from his name, due to the fact that he did not endorse the behaviors, citing his creation in 1980 of the Scott Newman Centre, "dedicated to the prevention of substance abuse through education". Princeton disavowed any responsibility for the event, responding that Newman Day is not sponsored, endorsed, or encouraged by the university itself and is solely an unofficial event among students.
Newman Night
Newman Night has been recently started at The Evergreen State College in which students celebrate by having a dinner-party consisting largely of Newman's Own brand food. A classic Paul Newman movie is viewed and whenever Newman enters a new scene, the partakers have a drink of Newman's Own beverage spiked with liquor.
Dartmouth Challenge
Bates College has long had a nominal connection with Dartmouth College in such that the founder of Bates graduated from Dartmouth and felt a "deep connection with the college, and was reported meditating near the grave of its founder, Eleazar Wheelock." The connection is reinforced through many campus parallels, as well as the fact that the two colleges also share the distinction of having the smallest endowment and student body of their respective athletic leagues, and participate with affiliated academic programs. Bates students created the Dartmouth Challenge, to make fun of the college's mascot, Keggy the Keg, by spinning Newman Day to new specifications. This includes representatives from each class year consuming one keg as fast as they can. The winner(s) are crowned King(s) Keg or Queen(s) Keggy, and are awarded the keg the representatives consumed, often dressed up as members of administration or faculty. The tradition has been picked up by Dartmouth College itself, and has been renamed the Bates Challenge which follows the same rules and specifications of its predecessor.
College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University
CSBSJU Day, also known as just "Case Day" is a student tradition where Johnnies and Bennies drink a case of beer in one day. CSBSJU students host parties or gather on campus and in St. Joseph, Minnesota to celebrate the annual tradition.
Kitty Dukakis Day
Harvard College's Hasty Pudding Theatricals celebrates an annual Paul Newman Day while on tour in Bermuda. Many members are known to take part in the popular Kitty Dukakis Day, drinking 750 ml of liquor in 24 hours. Additionally, some of its members have been known to take part in what is known as The Jonathan Price Holiday Grog, drinking 72 beers in 72 hours.
Fourth-Year Fifth
Many fourth-year students at the University of Virginia celebrate the day of its football team's last home game by drinking a metric fifth (750 mL) of liquor – approximately 300 mL of pure alcohol, assuming 80-proof liquor – between the midnight that begins game day and the kickoff of the game. This practice, known as the "Fourth-Year Fifth", has drawn extensive criticism since a student lost her life due to an alcohol related fall after attempting to complete it. The University has promoted a student-developed event labeled the "Fourth-Year 5K" (i.e., 5-kilometer run), open to students of all years as well as local residents, as a constructive alternative.